Strawberry Fields
Jun. 13th, 2008 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayMy morning routine for the month of June.
9 A.M. Alarm goes off. Get up. Get dressed. Take daily drugs. Put on hat. Off to the garden! If it's raining hard, I may skip the morning harvest, but I will go out in light rain. I don't like rain, but the strawberries aren't going to wait.
I bring two quart-sized containers. One is for harvesting, the other for weeds and culls. Since I can't cover the whole garden every morning, I start wherever I left off yesterday, so that no section of the garden goes too many days between harvests.
Down on my knees, I begin examining berries. The harvest algorithm is simple in theory, somewhat complex in practice. The basic question is "Will this berry be better in a day or two?" Sometimes that means picking one that is a touch under-ripe, because it is likely to be rotten by the next time I get to it.
Berries come in dozens of different shades, each with its own meaning. "I am perfectly ripe." "I am going to be ripe in two days." "I am a little over-ripe, but still yummy." "I am too over-ripe, and have fermented." "I almost look ripe, but I am secretly hard and woody inside." "I have started to rot, even though it doesn't show much yet." And many many more nuances.
Sometimes (especially after highly irregular weather, such as we had at the beginning of this June), the berries ripen very unevenly. The front half can be perfectly ripe, while the back is still white. These are tricky cases to judge. Severe cases will never be fully ripe, but ones that are only semi-lopsided often recover over time.
Many of the berries I pick are partially perfect, but with one spot of rot, or maybe only ripe on one side. I generally take a bite out of the good side of these, and toss the rest in the cull bucket. This can add up to a lot of half-strawberry consumption over the course of the morning!
A lot of the ones that fail the "will you be better later" test do so because they're already bad: gone to rot, bird-chewed, what-have-you. Those still get picked, if only so the parent plant will concentrate its energies on fresh, new berries. That's what the second container is for. If I keep up with the gardening, and don't lose a lot of days to rain or lameness, the rot:ripe ratio stays about 1:1. If I slack, or there are too many days of consecutive rain, it can get up to 4:1 or worse.
I also pull the occasional weed and dump it in the cull bucket. I used to weed compulsively, but I eventually realized it was a losing proposition. It's impossible to keep the garden completely clear, and some degree of competition actually makes for bigger strawberry crops.
Every so often, I brush off some of the various bugs that inhabit the garden, and have decided to try inhabiting me. We have a pretty diverse ecosystem going here. There are often bees, but I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. Sometimes I'll see a garden snake, but he's a big scaredy-cat. Squirrels and birds are also scared of me, but will often patrol the perimeter, waiting for me to leave.
Sometimes (rarely during the week, more often on weekends), I will offer strawberries to passersby. Many of them have never had non-store-bought strawberries, and are stunned at the flavor.
Around 9:40, my second alarm goes off, reminding me to stop in time to get to work, having spent about 30 minutes on the harvest. Early in June, I'll come back with a pint or two. At peak, I'll have a full quart. On a weekend, when I have more time, I might get two or three.
Time for Phase II, the sorting. Every strawberry gets examined a second time, and goes into one of four piles. Those that, on second look, aren't really yummy-looking, get culled at this point. Those that are slightly under-ripe go into a bowl for the household; many of these won't get eaten until evening, so it's good to choose ones that won't spoil in that time-span. Those that are slightly over-ripe go into a container to bring to work and share with my colleagues; these will be eaten pretty soon. Those which are Just Right go into the last pile. At the end of the first pass, I go over the Just Right pile very carefully, and pick out The Three Very Best Strawberries. The remainder get split between the house and work categories. The Three Best get carefully rinsed off, and delivered to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kestrell as tribute. (Or, if you will, a Daily Quest to improve my Faction Rep with her :-)
Off to work, arriving between 10:30 and 11:00. I do a circuit of the office, delivering fruit to those as want some. On particularly good harvest days, multiple trips may be required over the course of the day.
9 A.M. Alarm goes off. Get up. Get dressed. Take daily drugs. Put on hat. Off to the garden! If it's raining hard, I may skip the morning harvest, but I will go out in light rain. I don't like rain, but the strawberries aren't going to wait.
I bring two quart-sized containers. One is for harvesting, the other for weeds and culls. Since I can't cover the whole garden every morning, I start wherever I left off yesterday, so that no section of the garden goes too many days between harvests.
Down on my knees, I begin examining berries. The harvest algorithm is simple in theory, somewhat complex in practice. The basic question is "Will this berry be better in a day or two?" Sometimes that means picking one that is a touch under-ripe, because it is likely to be rotten by the next time I get to it.
Berries come in dozens of different shades, each with its own meaning. "I am perfectly ripe." "I am going to be ripe in two days." "I am a little over-ripe, but still yummy." "I am too over-ripe, and have fermented." "I almost look ripe, but I am secretly hard and woody inside." "I have started to rot, even though it doesn't show much yet." And many many more nuances.
Sometimes (especially after highly irregular weather, such as we had at the beginning of this June), the berries ripen very unevenly. The front half can be perfectly ripe, while the back is still white. These are tricky cases to judge. Severe cases will never be fully ripe, but ones that are only semi-lopsided often recover over time.
Many of the berries I pick are partially perfect, but with one spot of rot, or maybe only ripe on one side. I generally take a bite out of the good side of these, and toss the rest in the cull bucket. This can add up to a lot of half-strawberry consumption over the course of the morning!
A lot of the ones that fail the "will you be better later" test do so because they're already bad: gone to rot, bird-chewed, what-have-you. Those still get picked, if only so the parent plant will concentrate its energies on fresh, new berries. That's what the second container is for. If I keep up with the gardening, and don't lose a lot of days to rain or lameness, the rot:ripe ratio stays about 1:1. If I slack, or there are too many days of consecutive rain, it can get up to 4:1 or worse.
I also pull the occasional weed and dump it in the cull bucket. I used to weed compulsively, but I eventually realized it was a losing proposition. It's impossible to keep the garden completely clear, and some degree of competition actually makes for bigger strawberry crops.
Every so often, I brush off some of the various bugs that inhabit the garden, and have decided to try inhabiting me. We have a pretty diverse ecosystem going here. There are often bees, but I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. Sometimes I'll see a garden snake, but he's a big scaredy-cat. Squirrels and birds are also scared of me, but will often patrol the perimeter, waiting for me to leave.
Sometimes (rarely during the week, more often on weekends), I will offer strawberries to passersby. Many of them have never had non-store-bought strawberries, and are stunned at the flavor.
Around 9:40, my second alarm goes off, reminding me to stop in time to get to work, having spent about 30 minutes on the harvest. Early in June, I'll come back with a pint or two. At peak, I'll have a full quart. On a weekend, when I have more time, I might get two or three.
Time for Phase II, the sorting. Every strawberry gets examined a second time, and goes into one of four piles. Those that, on second look, aren't really yummy-looking, get culled at this point. Those that are slightly under-ripe go into a bowl for the household; many of these won't get eaten until evening, so it's good to choose ones that won't spoil in that time-span. Those that are slightly over-ripe go into a container to bring to work and share with my colleagues; these will be eaten pretty soon. Those which are Just Right go into the last pile. At the end of the first pass, I go over the Just Right pile very carefully, and pick out The Three Very Best Strawberries. The remainder get split between the house and work categories. The Three Best get carefully rinsed off, and delivered to
kestrell as tribute. (Or, if you will, a Daily Quest to improve my Faction Rep with her :-)Off to work, arriving between 10:30 and 11:00. I do a circuit of the office, delivering fruit to those as want some. On particularly good harvest days, multiple trips may be required over the course of the day.
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