Small strawberries, big taste
I harvested my first of the season this weekend 鈥� and what a sweet milestone it was.
I love all berries 鈥� blueberries and raspberries especially 鈥� and I don鈥檛 disdain those big red strawberries in the grocery store (or even better, from the local farmers鈥� market). But there鈥檚 something special about the little alpines.
The taste is delightful 鈥� a mouthful of flavor concentrated in a tiny package. And, unlike regular strawberries, they don鈥檛 produce runners, so they don鈥檛 require much space, special methods of planting, or any ongoing care year after year.
I first discovered them years ago in a White Flower Farm catalog, where they were referred to as , which sounds much better than plain old strawberries any day.
For some reason, I had bought a strawberry pot that spring and had this idea I鈥檇 grow strawberries in it. So I ordered a packet of seeds, planted them in a flat, and they germinated and grew.
I was able to harvest berries that same year 鈥� all through the summer and into fall, which is one of their nicest characteristics, I think.
I鈥檓 pretty sure my little plants never made it into the 鈥� I admire how the pots look in magazine photographs, but they always seem to take more effort than I want to devote to them.
Instead, I planted the in hanging baskets and in a flower bed among some new perennials. They were nice mounded plants 鈥� great for edging 鈥� that looked attractive and produced fruit about the size of wild berries and oh-so-sweet.
I鈥檝e been a big fan ever since. Here in Boston, I buy plants every spring from an organic herb grower at the twice-weekly farmers鈥� market not far from where I live. (Actually, for you running buffs, the market is next to the finish line for the .)
The grower charges the same for good-size strawberry plants as for four-inch pots of common herbs, so I consider them a bargain.
They couldn鈥檛 be simpler to grow: Give them sun, decent soil containing plenty of organic matter, and water if there's no rain. If you grow them in the ground, add some mulch. In containers, you鈥檒l want to fertilize occasionally.
Bird netting might also be necessary.
My alpine strawberries have always been the red kind. There鈥檚 also a white () type that鈥檚 supposed to remind your taste buds of pineapple. It鈥檚 on my 鈥渟omeday鈥� list of plants I want to try.
These berry plants are hardy perennials that will return year after year. The reason I each spring is that I鈥檓 an urban gardener who grows mostly in pots and I simply don鈥檛 have much space to store things out of the cold and snow over winter.
You鈥檒l measure your harvest by the handful, but that鈥檚 OK. You believe the adage about good things coming in small packages, right? If you don鈥檛 now, you will after you鈥檙e grown fraises des bois.
