The Sweetest Strawberry
I’m lucky to be a stay-at-home dad. Sorry, another “Off Topic” post but I figure this audience will appreciate it. It’s a story about strawberries and five-year old greed.
The past few years have had their career and health frustrations, so I took on a hobby and planted a fruit garden (raspberries, blackberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and then the fall brings tomatoes, peppers, and soon, asparagus. It’s been three years since most of that was installed and gardeners know that means … we finally get to really harvest! Strawberries are first and today I took a handful of “prairie strawberries” into the house to share with my kids. In a fit of 5-year old greed my Henry grabbed the last three. Maggie snatched one away from him but the other two were gobbled. I snapped at him, telling him I wanted a last one too. He looked glum and stared at the floor. Then mumbled sorry, and walked to his room. I picked up a book and started reading.
I never even heard the backdoor but Henry came running in excitedly with two strawberries – one in each hand. He handed one to me and said “You said you wanted one more. I found you two!”
Sweetest strawberries I ever ate.
Have a great weekend!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
So cute! You’re raising a very sweet boy there. I used to teach Kindergarten, that kind of responsibility and kindness aren’t normal, you sound like a great dad.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…….
🙂
June 27th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
(somehow this part didnt post)
That was so sweet now I need to go drink some lemon juice straight up to balance it out.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Awesome! Henry is a keeper!
I, too, really love the fruit/veggie gardening. I’ve got tomatoes each year, asparagus, and some grape vines. At two, my son is a great weeder, unfortunately he also weeded out my two habenero plants… 🙁 My peach tree doesn’t do diddly, and I’ve finally put my strawberries in the ground.
I had some Ligenberries (think scandinavian cranberry like thing) but they didn’t “take” and died the first season. Wish I had more yard so I could plant even more stuff…
Let us know how the harvest goes!
June 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I could do a post on this if there’s interest….
But basically I channeled a lot of “Is GamerDad going anywhere” creative frustration and angst into my yard. It also works a great way to learn patience. You really can’t rush a garden and you’re a victim of so many factors. I’m lucky. My only real enemy is a chipmunk – but Bubbles keeps him at bay this year. No birds, bugs, slugs, etc.,
The prarie strawberries – which are about the size of your fingernail and pack a wallop are coming in great (but they’re getting crowded out by the massive Raspberry/Blackberry trellis. I put the trellis in this year and last year I got about 30 rasp and 10 black. This year I should improve that yeild by 1000% at least. Next come the cherries (sour dwarf) and those should be a first big yeild too. I just planted a dwarf 4-1 Apple and a dwarf 5-1 pear and I planted them together. That’ll limit the yeild, but I mainly want to try them out. I’d prefer tiny yeilds of those anyway.
Year 3 is key.
Now, the best thing I did was the crazy thing. I spent $85 on a 30 year old blueberry bush and paid close to $200 to have it delievered to my yard. Here’s the thing, it’s gorgeous and at that price – when you consider tree costs – a bargain. I also got 10 pounds of blueberries last year and expect twice that this year. Will it pay for itself? Probably, but even if not it is Green in the spring, white flowers in late spring, blue berry covered in mid summer, gold and brown in the Fall and red all winter. It’s a spectacular ornament.
NOTE: Needs acid soil. I dug out a 4′ deep 10′ wide trench and then added wood to raise the garden another foot. Then filled with all new and acid PH soil. I named the plant: “Kablooey”
This year I turned the raised gardens I made last year into a giant strawberry patch and the other I planted a ton of Asparagus. I have the tomatoes and peppers in containers and I converted my kids old sandbox into an herb garden for Linda. Oregano, Basil, Pasley, Cilantro, Thyme, Bay, and Curry.
Expensive hobby, but it changes all year and is a year round science food experiment for the kids. Well worth it.
Again, if people want, I can post some pics and talk more about it. I never imagined anyone would care. Believe me though, I did all this work right before the heart attack and had I passed, it would have been a recurring gift for my family. Since I didn’t, I have a real pleasure enjoying this, my garden/orchard.
June 29th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I’ve also got gooseberries and currants btw. Also a bing cherry bush, Believe it or not I have a tiny yard. But it has two hills in the back that are so hard to mow, Linda let me cover them with perrenials. On the flower front I have a hillside that’s all white and yellow daisies. That was this year’s big project and I lot of the reason for my silence May through early June. We only get a month or so of nice weather. The heat starts soon.
Which is great ’cause the tomatoes need heat!
.
June 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Weird but when I read this it seemed more like the dad came off as the greedy one.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:57 am
Isn’t it sometimes the job of our kids to point out that we don’t always act in mature, responsible and adult ways? 😀
July 1st, 2008 at 11:54 am
Yeah, JK that is a weird way to look at it.
Gamerdad even explains it above. His son grabbed the last three and his daughter had to fight for one of those. Then the boy shoved them into his mouth. GD could have punished him for that and instead, he corrected him and moved on. Henry was rude and greedy. And he felt bad. So he made up for it by returning what he’d taken … with interest.
Again, 5-year olds don’t usually display that kind of thinking. Henry is a well-mannered 5-year old!
July 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Ehhh, I can be pretty greedy myself but maybe it would help if you knew that the next line of the story goes like this:
“I offered him one and he shook his head. ‘I’m full from last time daddy.'”
I ended it abruptly because I was going for the punch.