It is the end of July and the berry picking season is winding down. Well, for a little while anyway. Here on the farm we love our berries and it sure is great to just walk around and graze on whatever deliciousness you can find.  I decided to do a little series of all the different fruits we have here on the farm and maybe include a recipe or two.

The first berry ready is always our strawberries. We have two different patches with two different varieties. One is close to the house and is terraced with limestone.

The other is on the back side of the garage on a hillside. The hillside patch is under construction so only the top half has berries. These need to be protected from the chickens, ducks and birds so they are all fenced it. The hillside berries (honeoye) are just starting to ripen for their second run.

All of our strawberry patches are covered with landscape fabric to prevent massive amounts of weeds and creeping grasses from coming in and taking over.  The strawberry runners root right through the landscape fabric.  The fabric on the hillside ended up deteriorating in less than a year which did not make us happy at all.  We’re thinking about replacing it with some new fabric but haven’t decided yet.  The deer were hard on it too since their little hooves punched holes all over in it.  More fencing and the finishing of my currant hedge should help with that.  The fence is made up of some electric fence posts and chicken wire.  Like I said before, it’s mostly there to keep the chickens and ducks out and the neon pink strips are there to try to dissuade the song birds.  The neon tape didn’t work as well as we had hoped.  I talked about putting a whole row of mesh over the top connected with a stick on one end so that it can be easily rolled back for picking.  We’ll see what we decide.

The best way to prevent berries from being lost to birds and other animals (raccoons, deer, etc.),  is to have a dog and plenty of cats.:)  If that doesn’t work go to the local fabric store and buy some nylon net.  My mom picked some up at Walmart for $0.99 a yard.  We tried to use the mesh specifically sold to prevent birds from taking the berries, but all we ended up with were dead birds that had strangled themselves in the mesh.  The nylon net works much better and comes in a variety of colors.:)

Most commercial strawberry producers revamp their strawberry beds every year.  We don’t really  have the time and money to do that, so instead my mom cuts back the leaves, after they’re done producing, to promote new vegetative growth.  The plants are fertilized very early in the Spring; usually March or April depending on weather.  We fertilize with horse manure which is readily available for us.  Cow manure or other animal manure will also work.  You can even use compost or sea kelp if those are more readily available.

The berry crop we get is very dependent on the weather here.  If it’s incredibly cold there is poor pollination.  If it’s really damp the fruits will rot and if it is cold and damp at the same time we won’t get much of anything.  If this is the case, we will go to one of the local strawberry farms and pick for freezer berries.  If the weather is nice, however, we can expect to get fresh strawberries with every meal and plenty of strawberries to freeze for winter use.

My mom was kind enough to share her methods for freezing strawberries and our favorite strawberry pie recipe!  Enjoy!

Freezing strawberries:  Wash, hull and drain in a colander.  Measure out by quarts and freeze in quart bags.  Or if you want individual strawberries available, freeze on cookie sheets and transfer to a freezer bag after they are hard.

Strawberry Pie
1 graham cracker crust for 9″ pie pan
1 quart frozen strawberries
About 1/2 cup water
2/3- 3/4 cup sugar depending on sweetness
1/4 cup cornstarch

Drain the strawberries and mash them to get approximately 1 cup of juice.  Add water to make 1 1/2 cups.  Pour all the liquid except 1/4 cup into a medium saucepan.  Add the sugar to the juice stirring until it is dissolved while bringing the liquid to a boil.  Meanwhile, add the cornstarch to the 1/4 cup of reserved liquid and blend thoroughly.  When the liquid is boiling, take off the heat and add the cornstarch mix, stirring as it is added.  Return to heat, bring to a boil and stir constantly until thick and bubbling about one minute.  Remove from heat and add the mashed berries.  Pour into 9″ pie pan with graham cracker crust and refrigerate until set.
Variations:  The graham cracker crust can be lined with a thin layer of cream cheese to keep the strawberry mix from soaking into the crust.  A layer of flavored, sweetened whipped cream can be spread over the top after set and served immediately.