藤成熟的草莓 Strawberries

There is probably no fruit that is more commonly accepted and enjoyed than strawberries. Here you can see the early crop of strawberries that ripen in January. They are much tastier than the later ones, especially those that are vine ripened. Raised in the north, I also always get a kick out of living in places where crops ripen the year round.

Here in the top photo is a field not far away from where we live. We went out with my parents earlier this week. They bought 8 baskets at these growers and we bought 8 baskets. That meant we had more than enough to split with my wife’s parents and relatives. Our smallest one enjoys taking one jumbo-sized strawberry and munching on that for a while while his mouth and fingers turn red . It seems like almost a whole meal for him at this point.

For some reason unknown to me, but probably not to many of you out there, these growers place plastic wrap on the ground when planting strawberries. It may be to keep the soil from flooding in the winter rains, sort of like a monsoon season but they don't call it that here. The 2nd photo done, with my zoom lens in extreme telephoto position, is a close up of one of the plants. The 3rd photo is the end result in a basket on our counter with a lot of clutter around for special effects.