I picked a handful of strawberries last night before the deer, rabbits and birds got any more of them. It would be wrong to say I’m actively growing strawberries. I sort of planted them and ignored them.

But the fall nursery catalogs are here, and I’m thinking of putting in a large permanent raised bed and planting about 100 plants, so I can freeze the strawberries whole. That way I can toss a few in smoothies. Or just grab a handful of summer, even in winter.

For strawberry lovers (and future strawberry growers), the Kingfield Farmers’ Market has partnered with Natura Farms (which is out very near me in Scandia) to bring you the best in just-picked berries. This Sunday, June 24, you can sample several local varieties — All raised without pesticides on land managed by the same farmer for over 25 years.

According to the Kingfield neighborhood newsletter, it doesn’t get any sweeter than this:

Earliglo - Earliest, small, very intense flavor

Itasca - also early, a new U of M variety

Mesabi - A U of M variety, tends to be smaller than many unless really babied, but a number of wine makers swear by it.

Jewel - Patented Cornell University, it winters marginally and for that reason sometimes not grown, but the flavor is superb.

Also possibly available:

Cabot - A Nova Scotia variety, one planted primarily for size bragging rights, though the flavor is not bad when fully ripe.

Winona - Another U of M variety, is one of our latest, with reasonably good size and flavor.

Have you grown any of these varieties? Which do you think tastes best? More importantly, what is your favorite way to eat these sweet treats? (Note: For those of you into strawberry shortcake, check out last week’s Counter Intelligence podcast.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Berries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.