Strawberries----Just never enough

They started off strong, taking in all the cool weather to lay out the foliage and then the flowers. We weeded hard trying to get out the invasive Creeping Charlie and the blue grass all of which seems to do better than everything else. We were aggressive in our quest to initiate the scorched earth policy of no weeds.

But as the weather warmed and the strawberry leaves increased, the stinking, conniving weeds fired up their miserable little gumption engines and crept about under the berries. They were hiding from us knowing that any outward display would be punished with extraction. They are mean and sneeky.

Well, that is not the end of. The weeds were knocked back just like the rabbit is about to be "knocked back" permanently. Missed him twice already, largely because it is too small to hit at twenty yards and he always has a way of sitting by the garden hose and all I need is an arrow through my water distribution system--but I could splice it. Tomorrow he dies. I don't give a damn how cute he is. He is a weed and unfortunately too small to consume---maybe bunny on a stick surrounded by two onions. Maybe fertilizer.

Oh, ya strawberries. The berries came on about a week ago looking decent but not overly abundant, probably due to the six feet of rain and clouded gloom that flooded everything and took over the land. We made a couple of early pickings with the sole intention of producing jam because we had been running out early in the last couple of years. I suspect by me covering a 5 ounce serving of getting-expensive cereal with a half pound of berries, there was little else left for jam. My bad.

I controlled myself this year and now we are 5 pints strong in the jam category. Unfortunately, the bloody berries are already starting to wane. Don't know why, but the years have been strange in attitude with floods, then dry, then cold, then real hot. Give me a break. But today we did secure another batch, and that coupled with rhubarb and maybe a few bags of blackberries from last year we'll get another 5 pints. Dump in a few pounds of cane sugar (never figured out how to use maple syrup) and we are on track for a winter of solid jamming. Black berries and raspberries still to go. Screw the revolution, we have started out the year with bounty.