The Strawberry Field

Strawberry Plant with Small Buds Forming

I finally figured out how to get the pics on here. This is a pic of one of the plants and those small groups of closely grouped petals in the center are where new flower buds will be forming. It is still a little too early for those and that is what I will be spending my time snipping. The next photo is of me, Robin, and Little Norah. Robin is in the light blue sweat shirt, I am in the dark blue swetshirt with SEVERAL layers on underneath, and little on is Norah. Robin is the Bee Lady, I am known as the Tomoto Lady, and we are still trying to figure out Norah's nickname on the farm. She seems to be into everything and not one thing particular so I am thinking so far-Nosy Norah.

I spent 2 days of the coldest days so far in the strawberry field pulling weeds and runners from the plants over the weekend. I was unable to update the blog due to developing of an allergic reaction of some sort. It finally got so bad that I had to go the doctor today. He informed me that I was either allergic to the strawberries or the fumigant used on the field. Since I was digging under the plastic and around the strawberry plants that could be a possibility. I could also be allergic to the gloves that I was wearing but I don't see that being a possibility since they are the ones that i wore during tomato season. i am really hoping that I have not developed an allergic reaction to our cash crop. Jeff has been joking with me saying that I am just trying to get out work and he wants a doctors note. (haha). Since we don't have insurance I am trying a regiment of different things to see which has caused this uncontrollable itching of my hands. I did get an antihistamine shot and pills to take that seem to be working-no itching tonight. I'll keep you posted on that because it may be something that we have to look into for customers as well. And for the records, I have never in my life been allergic to strawberries. So we will see how this goes.

As for the strawberry plants the entire acre of plants has now been weeded and "de-runnered". For those of you unfamiliar with the plants, the runners are stems that grow from the plant and developed a root system of their own that will eventually root through the plastic. Jeff explained to me that in Canada these runners are what is harvested and used for the next year's plants.The weather is cold enough to be able to do this. Here, we have to cut them because at this point they are taking energy away from the plant that needs all the energy it can get for the spring blossoms. i did find MANY plants that already had flowers on them and a few that had produced strawberries already due to the warm weather. They are growing really well and so far the electric fence has kept the deer out once Jeff tweeked it with an additional line across the top so they couldn't jump it.

Tomorrow I am planning on going up to start snipping the flower buds off of the plants. We are putting down plasticover in Feb so it really needs to be done before then. Hopefully, between now and then we won't have anymore 70degree days to warm them. I was given a steriod to help with the itching of my hands which has me 10 degrees hotter than anyone else. So I figured the best place for me was in a strawberry field on a cold day.

I think I mentioned that Jeff and Matt finished clearing out the old house. I called my Aunt Cathy who is an artist and owns a sign making business. She will be making the signs we need for our farm once I figure out what the town and the county will let us have. She is also going to "harvest" some of the wood of the old house for her art projects. She also has rental property that she is going to pull the tub, toilets, and sinks out for. This is a really good thing because we were wondering what in the world we were going to do with those.

Tomorrow I am also calling the fire department about letting us burn a pile of scap rotted wood out there. Hopefully with the rain that we have been having they will let me. Most likely it will only smolder for quite awhile.

One of the errands that I doing tomorrow is to go to our local ag office to sign up for a meeting about becoming a participant in the CSA program. I am not sure of all the details of that but will post those once I get it. From what I understand the community pays X amount of money to get a box of fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. I am also signing up for some  of the classes through our local community college and the small business association to learn more about book keeping and marketing. Even farmers still have to go to school. lol

I am going to try to upload some pics we took at the farm over the weekend. I hope this works, I really want everyone to see our place with a before and after thought to all of our labors. Now that I have the picture thing figured out I will be posting a lot more pics.