Shellpot Creek Strawberry Festival

Last year I built a 4' x 4' raised bed in a somewhat sunnier part of the yard to plant strawberries. It is better to plant the strawberries in a raised bed because then it is easier to keep them contained as the runners like to spread out an colonize other parts of the soil. Last year was the planting year and this year is the harvest. Right now there are strawberries or flowers in every stage of ripeness.

Flowers

Green unripe berries

We picked the first of the ripe strawberries last week. This isn't all of them, many didn't make it to this picture because they were eaten. I just love growing my own stuff!

I think it is too early to officially declare the Shellpot Creek Strawberry Festival, but we hope to have a lot of strawberries. Enough that we run out of ideas of what to do with them and that we have to get out the canning jars for jam. Strawberry shortcake will be the first use after just eating them plain.