Sound of Strawberries

Hide in the bushes and make noise like a carrot.  You do remember the old punch line to "How do you catch a rabbit," don't you?  Why that came to mind as I tousled the tops of strawberry plants, finding red, ripe berries, I'll never know.

Ever notice that strawberries have little pockets for cream and sugar built right in?  

Nearly everyone's day starts with some form of breakfast.  All the Things I get to do today are not powered by just a cup of tea.  Our first meal includes a fruit, and in the summer we are so fortunate to have a variety of fresh berries from our garden May through August when the fruit trees come into their generous gifts.

The strawberries talk to me as they're plucked from their stems.  Some say nothing at all.  Others make a little snap as the stem breaks free from the plant.  But the one that caught my ear the other day and again this morning is the unique snap/pop combination that happens when the stem releases from the calyx at the top of the berry.  You know that sound!  If you've ever picked strawberries, it's the sound that neutralizes the stiff back and the pinching knee.  It's the sound that explodes with flavor on your tongue.  It's the sound that tastes like "mmm-m-m-m."

The Picking is Easy

Raspberries are a summer crop—sometime in July in my town usually.  But picking them in summer is not my favorite thing.  They tend to hide behind the leaves, or if they are too ripe, drop on the ground to be snatched up by a waiting chicken just as my reach meets the berry.

No, my favorite time to pick raspberries is in the fall when the vigorous new canes have stretched to their max and still have enough energy to throw out a spray of honeybee-attracting flowers on the top foot of the cane.  These flowers turn into berries and ripen starting in September when everything else is slowing down.  They hang like tantalizing bunches of grapes, easy to pick and begging to be touched by hand and mouth.

So the first of the Things I get to do today, even before I look at the list, is to be in the berry patch, before the sun is fully awake and longing to kiss the fruit, with my container on my belt as I delight in the abundance of this harvest.  Picking is easy now.