A new strawberry bed

I've had a strawberry bed for 2 years now - (just a plot of land about 4 ft by 8 ft, cut out of the sod and a couple of plants planted).  The runners from the strawberry plant took over in no time and covered the entire space.  I don't remember the name of the variety, but they only produce berries in June, so definitely june bearing. 

A raised bed placed on top of old strawberry bed(black edge)

Since my previous experience of building a raised bed, I decided to build one for strawberries too.  I read that the strawberry needs to be replanted about every two years, so it was time to replant the runners and also try out a different variety.  After filling the new bed with compost and lots of it, some of the old runners were replanted.  I picked out a everbearing - 'Quinault' strawberry in a small pot at Walmart for $2.98.  Divided the bed in two sections, one for the new variety and the other for the old one.

Here's the redone strawberry bed. The lone plant is Quinault and the rest are June bearing ones.

Unfortunately, I was saddened to see that the deer had already tasted the new planting- the very next day(:-  The leaves were chewed off and a part of the plant uprooted.  I've planted that back and watered them.  Also, covered it with net, so hopefully the plant will root and send some runners soon.

'Quinault' strawberry plant chewed off by deer!

Harvest Monday - July 4, 2001

Happy 4th to everyone!!  I don't have too many pictures this week!  This is the time when spring is almost over and summer is not yet here, so spring crops are mostly done with, but summer crop is yet to be ready.  My bush beans however gave a small first harvest today :)

In addition to the following harvests, we used a lot of mint(not pictured) this week.

Lettuce

Strawberries #1

Strawberries #2

Green beans!!

PYO Strawberries

We went to a Pick Your Own Strawberry patch last week.  It is somewhat of a summer ritual for us.  We look forward to going to the patch all year long.  Strawberries are very easy to pick.  All the plants are neatly organized in wide rows(how they manage to get the strawberry runners to stay in place, I have no idea).

Rows of strawberry plants

Boxes, carts provided to haul the berries back to the weighing station. 

Picking berries

Our kids love picking berries,way more than we can use.

As a result of all that extra berries lying around every year, my dh suggested homemade jams.  I tried making some and they were way tastier than store ones.  So, now I make jams (almost) every year.  The combination of warm jam and bread is irresistible. 

Homemade jams.

I ended up with 6 pints of jams.  Even without the "boiling water canning", my jams in the fridge have lasted for over a year without any taste change.  However, it is suggested refrigerating for upto 3 weeks without sealing and for 1 year when the jars are sealed through the water canning method.  This year, I refrigerated few jars and processed the rest through the boiling water(just in case).  The next day, they had a nice tight seal, so I feel good.  Any of you have any experience with making and canning jams?  How long did your jams last?