Tag Archives: strawberry

More Homemade Jam Deliciousness

I seriously have the bug. And “We be jammin'” is my new theme song. Or at least the part of the song that keeps running through my head and won’t come out.

Strawberry JamMy first ever jam (I’m still ridiculously pleased with myself) was strawberry rhubarb made with Certo Light so I could use less sugar than a typical recipe calls for. Call me crazy but I prefer to taste the fruit, not just the sugar. That batch was still quite sweet, so clearly I’d have to try again.

After the first batch of jam I used some of the rhubarb I’d gathered from a neighbours yard to make a rhubarb concentrate (a.k.a. a rhubarb ribena, ergo christened rhubina). Don’t worry, I asked the neighbour first, about taking the rhubarb. Turns out she and her husband hate rhubarb so she told me to take as much as I wanted. Oh yeah, baby! Continue reading →

Freak Strawberry Sighting: Update

Sprouting Strawberry When I posted the photo and story about the freakish Strange Seeding Strawberry the other day, a lot of people asked what was going on and commented that they’d never seen anything like it. But no one could shed any light on the mystery.

See, typically strawberry seeds need to overwinter (a.k.a. freeze) in order to germinate. Having them germinate on a strawberry that was still attached to the plant seemed more than a little unusual.

Well, I’m all about local so I decided to give our very own Driedeger Farms, a local strawberry farm dating back to the mid-1940’s, a chance to weigh in on the topic.

Rhonda responded to my query asking a few identifying questions that I couldn’t answer about what kind of strawberry it was. “Uhm, a red one” was about as specific as I could be.

In the end Rhonda did her research online and found me an article on how to grow strawberries where the comments below referred to strawberries being planted in soil and sprouting that way. I appreciate that, but it was a bit disconcerting that the strawberry expert relied on eHow.com, even more so when her parting comment was, “It was definitely interesting to see them in their ‘natural’ state.”

I can cut Rhonda some slack given that strawberries naturally propagate via runners and on a 65 year old farm it’s not likely they’ve needed to rely on seeding in quite some time.

But it still doesn’t explain why a strawberry that has neither been frozen nor planted in soil, sprouted on the vine.

Strange Seeding Strawberry

One of my garden neighbours has a strawberry that has begun to sprout. Not the plant, the actual strawberry. Neither of us has ever seen anything like it, and I must say it’s a rather strange sight.

Each of the seeds on the outside of the strawberry has a green shoot extending out of it, giving it the appearance reminiscent of a just sprouted Chia Pet. Frankly, it looks quite alien.

Normally, strawberry seeds can only be activated or germinated after they’ve been frozen/wintered.

“The key factor in successful germination is the cooling or winterizing of the seeds before planting.”
How to sprout strawberries.

The fact that this one’s seeds all spontaneously sprouted in relatively warm weather is unusual.

I’ve not found anything in my online search travels to explain what happened or whether you can plant the strawberry like this and grow it successfully. If you’ve ever encountered this, I welcome your comments.