Strawberry Fields

Early this spring we splurged on several pounds of bare root Albion strawberry starts. They are an everberring variety that I have seen produce all the way up until November at a nearby farm. We planted about 100 feet (two rows) of these strawberries and they have done us well. The only problem is that they rarely last on the vine long enough to be picked fully ripe and they certainly  have never seen their way to the kitchen in any real quantity.  Inspired by Jacob, our environmental studies teacher, we have plans to change that! Yesterday when I arrived for shared work, Jacob was busily planting a few strawberry runners into pots of soil.  We ran with the idea, and spent the good part of shared work cutting runners off one of the strawberry beds. This task that has been on our too do list for a long while anyhow, because new plants produce better if their flowers and runners are cut off as their roots are establishing. We transfered the runners into trays of potting soil and began to imagine the bounty ahead. We boldly decided to replace the entire area of the garden that is currently planted in green beans.... with strawberries. We have literally put up wheelbarrow loads full of frozen greenbeans this season, so I'm sure no one will mind. This will also continue the goal of making that area of the garden our perennial section, which currenly consists of raspberries, asparagus and a very new medicinal herb garden. We tallied our haul of runners and decided we had about 500 plants, the perfect amount to plant that area, (about 210 bed feet). In doing a little after the fact research, it seems that most people recommend rooting the strawberry runners before cutting them off the mother plant, or separating the crowns. Perhaps we'll try out those methods on then next row and hopefully we'll have enough to both double our strawberry field AND sell some starts to our neighbors!