Berry Season

 It's strawberry season in Oregon.   

Look at these, from my favorite local farm.

Think they're big enough?  Almost apple size.

I have a few old strawberry plants out front that so far haven't fruited but they bloomed.   They are really the offspring of my old plants, as I let the runners get out and root, then cut off the parent plants who were two old to grow anything but deformed fruits from their blooms.

But K Family Farms has the best berries and I've already been there twice.   

I'd love to get to the coast to the fields where I know the wild strawberries grow.  I can't really get that out of my mind.  Wild strawberries are small but I love them.

It's the start of cherry season too but I don't usually buy cherries in stores, they're so heavily sprayed.  Usually I have a friend or two trying to get rid of their excess wild tree cherries and I'm hopeful that will be the case this year too.

Then it will be Blueberry season and raspberry and blackberry season.  I have my areas for blackberry harvesting.  I keep most places secret because blackberries are free and my most favorite of all the berries.   I have raspberries growing in my yard now.  A friend gave me a couple canes from hers and they grew up that summer to produce, but now they really produce.  I eat thimble berries and salmon berries too, from the wild, and I have a few secret spots for those, although one of my favorite spots burned in the wildfires.  However, if I can get back in there now, and it might be open, I bet post fire the berries are flourishing.  Huckleberries are so small I don't bother to go find them out in the woods but I do eat them if I happen up them.  I like the blue better than the red but I'll eat either color.

Still, blackberries will always be my favorite berry, when so ripe they fall into my hand when I touch the berry.  I don't mind getting scratched arms going for them.  The best berries seem always just a little bit out of reach.