Berry lovely

So it's produce city once again in my household.  Despite weeks of rain, my rampant strawberry patch is producing the biggest crop I've ever had. While we might see strawberries as delicate little blighters, I really think they are just old scrubbers.  Three years ago I chucked down some bark chipping around the clothesline, to cover a big area of infill/hardcore resulting from the removal of a large pond.


I happened to have a pot of strawberries sitting nearby.  Since then, the strawberries have sent out runners, jumped ship and now cover the whole of the barked area - about 3-4 metres square.  They seem to be tough little buggers and love it in this rather harsh setting.


And I'm not complaining - strawberries and yoghurt for breakfast every morning is something I don't get tired of.  Also, some wee wild strawberries somehow got established in my flowerbeds (good ground cover) and they are adding to the harvest.

So I took inspiration from the burgeoning garden and had a day in the kitchen rustling up some preserves - more grapefruit and lemon marmalade and a large batch of my world famous tomato relish.  This should keep me, my friends and neighbours happy for a while....