Quote:
Originally Posted by CFrance
We used to sail in the North Channel, between Canada and the US. Mostly you would anchor overnight or stop at a small marina. A lot of the islands up there were Native American land, and technically you weren't supposed to go ashore without permission. But the kids who lived there would pick wild blueberries and sell them to us tourists. Best ever blueberries.
When I was a kid at our summer place at Lake Erie, we had a meadow katty-cornered to our property. Wild strawberries grew there. They were tiny, and we would spend hours with our mother picking them. She made strawberry jam out of a lot of them, but what I remember most is eating them out of hand. The only strawberry that's ever compared to them was one I found during a walk on a country road in Elk Rapids, Michigan. There it was, one tiny strawberry in a plant on the side of the road. Exactly like the ones we picked as kids.
I wish I could say I picked that strawberry and took it home to my friend's cottage to wash and then eat. But no. I was so excited I stupidly popped that sucker right into my mouth. And it was as good a wild strawberry as I remembered from my childhood. Who knows what was on that strawberry. Some dog, maybe... Well whatever, I didn't get sick, I'm still here, and I have those two memories.
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Frankly true of most if not all fruits and vegetables. We insist on large, pretty fruits. The farmer, insists on high yield resistance to insects and plant diseases. Thus, we remember what used to be.
If, you can find them-mail order-buy GUARDIAN strawberry plants. The fruits are, well not pretty so they are no longer grown commercially.
If, you want really good blueberries. I've never seen them sold by variety. Perhaps, at one of the you pick places. In MY OPINION, the best blueberries that will grow in our climate is MISTY. The plants are pretty. I do not but you could use them as a hedge. You get fruit-if you can beat the birds to it and it turns red in the fall.
Asparagus-like corn it immediately starts to deteriorate on picking. I don't grow them here but you reminded me of in our previous home picking Asparagus outside our kitchen window.