Mother’s Day heralds the start of the strawberry harvest season. In Surry, Stokes, and Yadkin counties, the pick-your-own fields are filled with red berries and white blooms. The season will last for all of May and a week or so into June. You can pick your own berries or purchase berries by the gallon bucket already picked. The environment in a strawberry patch on a warm May morning is an unforgettable event with the fragrance of strawberries and honeysuckles in the air and the songs of birds in the trees. Whether you pick or buy already harvested strawberries, the trip to a strawberry field is a great and rewarding experience.
Purchasing a useful strawberry capper
Strawberries don’t have hulls but they have green caps on the top of each berry. A great long-lasting useful tool for capping strawberries is a strawberry capper. Many strawberry farmers sell them for a dollar or two. With these cappers, you can dig down in the berry and remove the cap easily. You can also purchase them at the kitchen tool section at many supermarkets and kitchen specialty stores.
A portrait of a goodly, godly, mother
The love of God and the love of mother reflect the greatest examples of love in all the world as well as in heaven. The heart of a mother is akin to the heart of God and every mother is a gift from God to a child. A godly mother will do anything to protect her child. A mother is touched by the simplest things like a hand-made Valentine colored with crayons or a golden dandelion picked from the lawn. She always has words of comfort, encouragement, and joy to boost her children. Her smile can cure any care and concern and make any situation better. She seems to deliver in the needs of her offspring and will make efforts to give them her best.
A mother is a “Jill of all trades.” She can rock children to sleep, sing a lullaby, kiss away hurts, and take a leftover and make a Banquet. Mothers clean up behind kids, stay up all night with sick children, help with homework, teach Sunday School and have more patience than anyone else in the world. Mothers are also very great pretenders- we always grew up thinking our mom liked the wings of fried chicken when she gave her sons the drumsticks, thighs, and breasts. Mothers are the ambassadors of America’s next generation and their life is an example to their offspring. To sum it all up, mothers are makers, menders, nurses, fixer-uppers, cooks, bottle washers, healers, helpers, teachers, but most importantly, they are builders. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world and is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. To all our mothers, we wish you a very happy Mother’s Day!
May paves way for summer veggies
The nights are getting warmer and so are the days of May. All warm weather plants and vegetables can now be planted. The warm soil will cause seed to respond quickly. Use a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrows before setting out plants and sowing seed. This will improve soil texture and promote moisture retention. Use a great organic vegetable food such as Garden-Tone, Plant-Tone, and Tomato-Tone. These products have been proven for almost a hundred years. They are not fertilizers but foods for vegetables and plants. Start seeds and plants off with these products and side-dress once a month for long-term results all the way until harvest
The season to sow squash and cucumbers
This week is when we reach the midway point of spring and a signal to plant cucumbers and squash that will respond quickly in the warm soil and will produce a harvest in 65 days. Great varieties of cucumbers are Poinsett 76, Marketmore 76, Long Green, Straight Eight, Ashley, Armenian, and Boston Pickler.
Sow cucumbers in a furrow about four inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow. Sow four or five seeds per hill about a foot apart. Cover with another layer of peat moss and top with a light layer of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food, hill up soil on each side of the furrow and tamp down with the hoe blade for solid soil contact. When the seeds sprout, thin them to two plants per hill. Side dress once a month and keep soil hilled up on both sides of the row.
Great varieties of squash are Early Prolific straight-neck, Enterprise straight-neck, Saffron straight-neck and Yellow crook-neck. Plant in a furrow about four inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow. Sow four seeds in each hill, cover with peat moss and top with a layer of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food. Hill up soil on each side of the row and tamp down soil for solid contact with the seed. When plants sprout, thin them to two plants per hill. Feed with Plant-Tone once a month and keep soil hilled up on each side of row after feeding with Plant-Tone.
Time to sow green beans and limas
The season of the bean is here. The soil of mid-spring is warm both day and night and the perfect season to sow a crop of green beans and Lima beans for a harvest in mid-July. Great varieties of green beans are Top Crop, Strike, Derby, Blue Lake Bush, Kentucky Wonder Bush, and Tenderette. In Lima bean varieties you can choose from Henderson Bush, Thorogreen, and Burpee Bush 242. Sow beans in a furrow about four inches deep and spread a layer of peat moss in bottom of the furrow and sow seeds on top of the peat moss and add another layer of peat moss on the seed and then a layer of Plant-Tone before hilling up soil on each side of the row for solid soil contact. Tamp down soil on top of row for contact with the seed.
The warm soil is receptive for tomatoes
This is the season for setting out the huge crop of tomato plants because they are definitely a warm weather vegetable that thrives in warm soil. The bulk of summer’s crop of tomatoes can be set out during the next two weeks. After that, set out several plants a week for as long as you can find plants available. Select these tomato varieties that have been garden favorites for many years. Some of the best are heirlooms such as Rutgers, Marglobe, Homestead, Mortgage Lifter, Roma and Beefsteak. An heirloom are tomato varieties that have been around for than 50 years. Other great tomatoes are Big Bay, Early Girl, Better Boy, Park’s Whopper, Beffy Boy; every season new varieties are developed, but nothing can quite take the place of the time-tested and proven varieties. All types of tomatoes need supports such as stakes or cages to keep them off the ground and from wind and thunderstorms and also a cleaner harvest. All tomatoes need to be fed and not fertilized. Use organic tomato foods such as Tomato-Tone, Dr. Earth, Miracle-Gro, Alaska fish emulsion, and Vigaro with added calcium.
Making a crispy tart strawberry cobbler
In the midst of the strawberry harvest, anything with strawberries in it is very good. This simple strawberry cobbler has only a few ingredients but makes good dessert. You will need three cups sliced fresh strawberries, one cup sugar, one stick light margarine, two teaspoons baking powder, one fourth cup milk, half cup flour, one tablespoon strawberry extract, and pinch of salt. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice strawberries into quarters, mix with one cup sugar and strawberry extract and set aside. Melt one stick of light margarine and pour into a 13x9x2 inch baking pan or dish. Prepare a batter of half cup sugar, baking powder, milk, flour, and pinch of salt. Mix and pour over the melted margarine. Do not stir. Pour the sugared straw berries over top of the batter. Bake for one hour. The batter will rise to the top while it is baking and become crisp and brown. Serve with Cool Whip or Dream Whip.
Hoe hoe hoedown
“Wanted:Wife.” Jon: “I hear that you advertised for a wife. Did you receive any replies?” Don: “Sure, several hundred.” Jon: “What did they all say?” Don: “They all said, ‘Here, take mine!’”
“Fault finding.” Adam may have had his share of troubles, but at least he did not have to hear Eve talking about the man she could have married.
“Shaky credit.” Credit Manager: “Do you have any savings?” Loan Applicant: “Certainly.” Credit Manager: “How much?” Loan Applicant: “I don’t know. I haven’t shaken it lately.”
Dollars and cents: My grandpa framed the first dollar he ever eared in a ten cent frame. Today, the frame is worth a dollar and the dollar is worth ten cents.
“School bus driver.” The only guy with all his troubles behind him is a school bus driver!
The arrival of the three chilly saints
The days in May that are known as the three chilly saints will be May 11, 12, and 13. These are usually cooler days in the midst of the month and also during the season of Blackberry Winter. There is a bit of weather lore that refers to these saints that says they will not leave until they bring us a frost. If that legend holds true, it may well be our last frost of spring. We still have some days remaining in Blackberry Winter, but they should only be nippy but the frost situation should now be over.
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