Red All the Way Through

We're eating on our second, and final, crop of strawberries for the year.  Unlike our June-bearing variety these ever-bearing fruits are odd looking.  They were in their first crop back in June and they are in their second crop now--though certainly less so.  Not at all a normal looking strawberry, but nonetheless they are so sweet and juicy as to just about melt in the mouth.  Its pretty incredible.  Matt likes them better then the conventional looking berries.  They seem sweeter.  But all of the berries, regardless of shape, are the most brilliant red all the way through to the core...none of the white-in-the-middle business so common in supermarket strawberries.  My niece Keleigh, who told me she didn't like strawberries, even liked them!  Matt went out to pick what he thought were probably the last of them on Saturday and came back with a good bowl full for breakfast.  And it looks like they weren't even really the last after all.  In fact, I think we were grossly mistaken in our assessment.  We picked a half pound for breakfast again this morning.  Yum.  I am keen to have strawberry season stretch out as long as possible!

Little tiny plants....  4/25/2013

Our neighborhood herd of deer mowed down the leaves and blossoms off this plant in the front yard.  The stinkers.  We never had deer to even consider as garden pests at the rental house.  5/16/2013

But the leaves grew back quickly and the plant bloomed again and fruited pretty well.  But, I bet not as well as it could have.  6/2/2013

The other two front yard strawberry planters.  They are full of ants.  Almost every single plant has an ant mound at its base.  Its strange, but doesn't seem to be hurting anything so....  5/16/2013

Blossoms and tiny hints of berries!  5/20/2013

Green berries loading up and teaching me the art of patience!  6/2/2013

A few berries picked for breakfast.  I think this was the second picking of the season.  6/10/2013

RED!  6/10/2013

Picking from the front plants.  6/11/2013

Birthday cupcakes out-of-doors with the wonderful Laurel Joy.  6/12/2013

An example of the irregular shapes of the ever-bearing strawberries that we have.  The seeds all end up at the bottom (and sometimes the bottom is more like the side) and they are not symmetrical in any way.  But, oh, so juicy and wonderful.  6/17/2013

Joy in 3, 2,...6/17/2013

...1!  When they are ripe like this the fruit just seems to slide right off the core as it melts in your mouth.  A lot of the time the core is even red all the way through.  6/17/2013

Homemade bread with homemade preserves and homegrown strawberries.  This is the breakfast of champions.  6/17/2013

These strawberries are enough to make a person never want a store-bought berry (picked under-ripe in California so that it is still "good" when it arrives in Montana) ever again.  Now that I've had them red all the way through I know what I've been missing all along.