Tag: strawberries

Starting Over with a Little Sparkle

~ Crystal Sands ~ 1 Comment

“It just seems wrong to pull up the strawberry plants,” I said to Ron.

“Sometimes, you just have to start over,” he said.

Strawberry plants only produce strawberries for three to five years. Our beds of Sparkle strawberries managed to make it five years, though the berries were definitely smaller this year. We probably should have pulled them last year, but it seems so wrong to pull plants (just thinning in the garden breaks my heart). Still, this year, there was no avoiding it.

I read that you can plant new strawberries in the late summer and early fall and get strawberries the next spring. In the past, we have planted in the spring and would have to go a season without berries, as you have to pull the flowers and give the plants time to get established before you let them make berries. I hope this fall-planting plan works because going a year without strawberries just feels impossible to me at this point. I mean, just look at this picture of our berries from 2022. How can I go a year without this?

It was a sad thing to do though–ripping out the plants. Because we just let the weeds go after strawberry season, when we were clearing out the beds last week, there were also about a million weeds. And, within those weeds and strawberry plants, a whole world of wildlife was living. There were worms and spiders and so many magnificent frogs. As we stripped each bed of its habitat, I felt most worried about the frogs. I met five frogs in total that day, and as each one hopped away, Ron distracted the ducks. One time, I saw what ducks will do to a frog, and I never want to see that again.

When I looked at the empty beds, there was a great deal of sadness, but I really wanted more strawberries next summer, I tried to think about the good things that would be coming from starting over.

I had a hard time finding strawberry plants so late in the summer. I could find some but not the kind I wanted–Sparkle.

When I found out the places in Maine and Vermont where we had bought plants in previous years didn’t have Sparkle, I figured I would have to settle for a different variety of berries, but as I read about all the other varieties available, none of them seemed as good as the Sparkle variety. Sparkle strawberries are sturdy for Maine but are also known for fantastic flavor and shape. How could I settle for anything less when I’ve already had Sparkle?

Thankfully, I found Sparkle berries at an Etsy shop. After we cleared the beds, Ron replenished the soil with compost, and then I spent the next two days planting. The plants were beautiful, and only a few looked a little “iffy” in terms of making it. The kind seller sent extra plants, and I managed to squeeze in every last one, even the few that looked a little rough. I hoped for the best.

I am happy to report that every single one of those plants seems to be making it, and we are getting to start over with 127 beautiful Sparkle strawberry plants!

The starting over with the strawberries feels so symbolic to me right now. After a summer of long COVID, our whole family is making progress. Our crashes are rarer and less intense. We are able to get more things done and enjoy life more, and that’s just the best. I haven’t had to crawl up the stairs in over a month, and I haven’t slurred my words in at least two weeks. And my son is gradually returning to his cello, and my heart is joyful.

Interestingly, his teacher is teaching him the Hadyn Cello Concerto No. 1, and I swear, it’s so joyful–and sparkly. It has been so uplifting listening to him work through the first part of that concerto every evening.

And with all of this hopefulness in the air, I have good news to share. I am planning to bring back Farmer-ish journal next year. In fact, in the coming weeks, the website is going to either go down or look very wonky, as I work to update the site. Hopefully, taking the lessons I have learned and starting over will lead to a little sparkle there too.

In the meantime, I’m watching those strawberry plants and listening to Haydn on the cello every day because, sometimes, you just gotta start over.

The first raspberries, the last strawberries, and other updates

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Mary Jane made it to the raspberries for another year! I hoped she would this spring when I was thinning the branches. She sat with me for hours, looking hopeful for raspberries. I think raspberries might be her favorite–maybe even more than watermelon. This morning, when I picked raspberries for breakfast, I kept out a handful just for her. She gobbled them up with satisfaction. I can tell she surely knows how much I love her.

I am hopeful for the raspberries. They look really good this year, and we need a good year after our strawberries did not do so well. I don’t know if it was just a weird year or if our plants are about done. I think it’s the latter. We have had five great seasons with those plants. I read they should be replaced after three to five years, so I guess it’s time. I think we will try to replace them in the fall, so we can hopefully have berries again next summer. That’s a big task though. Hopefully, I will be up to it. And it wasn’t a terrible year for them. I still made two batches of jam and got five quarts frozen for the winter.

Things have been busy here on the farm this summer but not nearly as busy as usual. Ron has been slow and steady planting the garden and just finished planting the last of things this week. It’s the latest he’s ever finished planting, but COVID has take a toll on all of us for sure. And, with long COVID in mind, we have no music camps this summer for our son. He just rests a lot, sleeps a lot, and I can see that he tries to stay positive. It was hopeful that he started playing his cello again this week, though he has to pace himself and can’t play more than 15 minutes per day. Still, slow and steady, right?

I am less busy than usual with the chickens because we had no babies this year. It’s been hard. The babies always bring so much joy, so long COVID plus no baby chicks has equalled a bit of a tough summer. On the bright side, I have been working on a Swedish death cleanse (though I hope I am not dying anytime soon), and I have made amazing progress. My struggle is books though. How can I get rid of books? I have more work to do, but our home is feeling much better, much less cluttered.It’s very helpful to my mental state.

We have still have our son’s pet mouse, who requires a lot of attention because mice are social animals and need company. I have also learned that mice will eat pretty much as much as you give them, so our little mouse has grown a little chubby eating so many treats from the garden along with homemade bread. I knew we were in trouble the first time I gave him some homemade bread and a fresh strawberry on the same day. He was half asleep with the bread in his hand and the strawberry right next to him. I watched as he would wake up, take a few bites of each item, get a joyful look on his face, and go back to sleep. I also had no idea mice were SO expressive, but he is!

He has a wheel, but we are going to have to build a bigger space for him–and in the last two days, he’s just had his mouse food and lettuce. Poor baby!

I have also been writing, just not as much as I would like here in the blog. I am actually working on a book. It’s a collection of essays, some of which I am revising from old blog posts and some of which are new. I plan to call it Chicken Stories, and I hope it will be worthy of a read. We’ll see. I hope to have it finished by the end of December. I will take any and all advice as well as words of encouragement.

Tell me how you’re doing if you get a chance. How is your garden growing? How are your chickens? What are you learning this year? And do you know anything about raising a mouse?

In My Hands

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

On Monday, I was picking strawberries in my apron and was struck by how beautiful the freshly-picked berries looked against my apron. Of course, I had to take a picture. Later, I was kneading dough for dinner and thought it was so beautiful too, so I took a picture. I ended up deciding it would be cool to take pictures of the amazing things in my hands on an average day here on our little farmstead. I hope these make you smile!

These were the very first strawberries of the season, and they symbolize so much hope and joy for me. They are the most beautiful to me!

I was making tortillas for dinner and thought about how beautiful dough is. I have large hands, which used to bother me when I was young, but now that I work on our farmstead–and am learning to play cello–I am thankful for large hands.

The first radishes! There have been no worms this year, which is kind of amazing! The snails have eaten the green beans and carrots, but the radishes have been spared the worms!

The spinach and lettuces have been excellent this year. I thinned them early and have been working hard to give them space all spring. It has worked. Look at this lettuce! And that’s Saint-Saens in the background really wanting some. She got some, of course!

Ruby is broody, as she does. Because we cannot have any baby chicks this year, I keep taking the eggs from her, and she keeps pecking me as much as she can over it. One day, I saw she was on nine eggs. On this day, there were just three.

And this one is a very long story. A couple of weeks ago, my teenage son rescued a baby mouse that had blown into our driveway after a storm. It was nearly dead, and I thought it was definitely going to die. However, my son stayed up with that mouse, who still had its little eyes closed, and fed it every two hours the first night. Somehow, that little mouse made it, and now we have a mouse friend. I know the risks of rescuing a wild animal, and I am generally opposed to this kind of thing. It’s a long story that I hope to tell soon that this little mouse, named Jeremiah Benjamin von Kangle Wangle (because he kangles and wangles and also seems to be able to teleport), is with us. He’s very, very sweet.

Strawberry Season 2023–or the Waiting Is the Hardest Part

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I took this picture exactly one year ago today. It was the first small batch of strawberries, and I was so excited because there were so many more berries nearly ripe and coming soon.

Strawberries are my favorite food in the world. As a child, all I wanted for my birthday was a strawberry cake. My great grandmother had strawberries in her in-town garden and would make strawberry jam, which I am still convinced, on homemade bread, is the best, most comforting food in the history of the world.

I love the strawberries.

This year, it feels like we are forever away from strawberry season still. It has been cold and gray and rainy, and everything in the garden feels stunted and slow. I have patience for the other things, like the radishes and beets. I am having a hard time waiting on the strawberries.

I just weeded the strawberry beds this morning and studied the state of things. The plants look great, and there are a ton of green berries. But they are all so green! It looks like it will be a couple of weeks before we have strawberries, and I am bummed about this wait. It’s all we can do though, I guess. Just wait and hope for sunshine.

Tom Petty said, “The waiting is the hardest part.” Those are wise words.

On Being Rich

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Day 50 of 365

Today feels like a milestone. I have been writing in this blog every single day for 50 days. Most days, I do not have time to write nearly as much as I would like. I have stories about sneaky chickens, special wild birds, and howling chipmunks, but I realize that summer is a tough time to be writing in a blog. There are baby chickens everywhere, and I somehow had two additional classes I wasn’t anticipating teaching land in my lap a few weeks ago. But, despite these obstacles, I have written something every day, and that counts, right?

Today was farm share day again. It’s normally on Thursdays, but the strawberries were so ripe that we decided we had better do an early farm share day this week. Plus, the sugar pod peas were ready, and we learned a long time ago that, when it’s hot, you have to move quickly on the sugar pod peas.

Today’s farm share included fresh strawberries and strawberry jam. Aren’t they beautiful?

I am marveling at our strawberries. It’s their second year of berries, and I can’t believe how generous these plants are being. It’s the chicken poop compost. Ron read years ago that it is the best fertilizer. I absolutely believe it.

I keep talking about how “rich” we are. We’re so rich we eat fresh strawberries for breakfast. We’re so rich, I made strawberry jam and still had berries left in the blow. We’re so rich, I have made smoothies with fresh strawberries with dinner three nights in a row!

I find it interesting that I measure wealth in strawberries. I also measure wealth in eggs. In December, I am poor, but by late February, I am so rich again! Right now, I am extra rich because we have strawberries AND eggs.

And the raspberries are coming, and the Oxheart carrots are getting bigger, and I am pretty sure the corn will surely be knee-high by the Fourth of July. I am feeling extra grateful of late. Things seem extra good. Even Kate’s baby is starting to thrive.

I am superstitious, so I am knocking on wood as I write these words.

The Generosity of the Strawberry Plant

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 45 of 365

I have loved berries for as long as I can remember. I suppose everyone would say that, but berries to me are nostalgia and comfort and joy and beauty. Maybe everyone feels that way about berries?

For me, there’s something extra special about strawberries. Since I was little, they have forever been my favorite food in the world. My great grandmother had a strawberry patch–and she made jam and let me pick berries–and my world was always better at her house. Strawberry ice cream is my favorite ice cream. If I was really lucky, I would get a strawberry shortcake on my birthday. When I was 8 and then 9, I really wanted one of those Strawberry Shortcake dolls. Today, I am convinced I need a farm dress in strawberry print. There must be pockets, of course.

When Ron built raised beds for me to plant strawberries in, I did my research to find a great local berry. Ron was generous with the chicken compost, and our strawberry plants seem very happy in their beds. This year, however, they have outdone themselves. I was a little worried when I saw so many flowers pop up in the spring. I worried about berries being too small. I should not have worried. The berries are perfection. I mean, imagine the perfect strawberry–perfect in size, shape, texture, taste, and color–and that’s what our beds are full of this year. It feels like a miracle.

In fact, today, while picking strawberries for our farm shares, I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of these berries and my hopefulness at sharing them with others that I got a little teary.

Yesterday, we had some friends out to our little farmstead, and they have small children, two girls, who are very little and just fantastic. I think the oldest is about three years old. They came out to meet the baby chicks and pick strawberries. And I have to tell you that the the oldest is a person after my own heart. She seemed to love the chickens, and she really loves strawberries.

I told her she could eat the berries as she picked, as they are organic. We never spray anything, of course. I told her to just watch out for squirrel bites and to not eat those. She was definitely on the lookout for squirrel bites after that. Once she quit worrying about squirrel bites, that kiddo dove into those strawberries, and it made me so happy that I thought my heart was going to burst from the joy of it. I mean, what’s better than a kiddo eating organic strawberries with joyous gusto?

I ate some too. I think we all ate some. The sun was shining, the breeze was cool, and the strawberries were–as you know–perfect. We picked so many berries that I thought surely we had made a dent in them, but today, when Ron and I went outside to pick for the farm shares, it was like the strawberries decided to be extra generous from all of that joy yesterday. I am certain, just absolutely certain, that the strawberries felt all of our gratefulness yesterday. They must have.

And I’m fairly certain the strawberries decided to be extra generous in return.

The Strawberries Are Coming

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 37 of 365

Tonight, I am worn, just not as worn as my husband. Ron is expanding our little homestead and having to build a new fenced area for new chickens. He chops cedars, digs holes, and installs fencing all by himself. I don’t even know how he does it.

But when he’s doing that from dark to dark, I am doing all the other stuff. If you have ever lived on a farm or homestead, you know that “all the other stuff” is a lot.

But I have quick updates from life here on Sands End Farm:

  1. The baby Eastern Phoebes are still around! I saw them playing in the yard near the strawberries today. I am over the moon about this, but that empty nest is still tough to see.
  2. Today, when I was grading essays and trying to entertain my adopted brood at the same time, I discovered that my little Lavender Orpingtons, who are the sweetest birds I think I have ever seen, will sit on my arms while I am typing on my computer. They just ride along as I moved my hands from different keys. I have to get a picture of this soon.
  3. And the strawberries are coming. Strawberries are my favorite food in the history of ever. I will have to write more about them soon, but we had about a dozen ripe strawberries today, and the beds are fuller than I have ever seen them. I am hopeful!