Well, they didn't last long

The strawberries, that is. At least here in southwest Michigan. All the local patches (including my strawberry patch that meanders around some of our raised beds) wrapped up the strawberry season over the weekend. The strawberries started early and left just as quickly as they arrived. We made the most of them and enjoyed fresh strawberries on cereal, pancakes, waffles and ice cream. I ate countless bowls of strawberry shortcake as well. In fact, with that in mind it is probably just as well that the season is over - at least as far as my waistline is concerned.

Here is what our local orchard, Corey Lake Orchards, had to say about the season -

Due to the early spring heat, everything is running about 10 days to 2 weeks early this year. It’s almost unheard of for strawberries to be over and to be in the middle of cherry season during the middle of June!

Sounds like we had better get our fill of cherries as quickly as possible - they might go just as fast as the strawberries.

Another great local market for asparagus, strawberries, and blueberries is Riverland Farm Market. They are supposed to have Michigan blueberries in starting this Friday, June 25th.

Enjoying the strawberries from our garden

I've got to take a moment to brag on my garden a bit. I planted a 3' x 3' plot of strawberries in a raised bed four years ago and just let them spread to the rest of the raised bed and then let them spill out over the sides. The patch is approximately 10' x 6' now and filling in nicely.

Since June 10th we've been picking a quart of strawberries or better each day. It's been nice to head out there and pick strawberries to make fresh strawberry shortcake or even just to add to the morning cereal.

Quick Strawberry Recipes: Easy Strawberry Freezer Jam Strawberry Butter

In other garden news - our tomatoes, pole beans, cucumbers, and red potatoes are doing quite well. It's been a bit on the dry side the last seven days so I've been watering everything. My next project is to get my rain barrel put together and then wait for rain ;).

I'll post instructions on how to build your own rain barrel whenever I get mine completed.

Happy Gardening!