Pick of the Season: Strawberries
Written By Lesley Porcelli
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Nine out of 10 preschoolers prefer strawberries to other fruits they may be offered. Okay, there's no hard science to back this up; we just know it's true. And if your child were going to eat only one kind of fruit, you'd be hard pressed to do better; strawberries are loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants.
Grow Your Own
You'll have the best luck with strawberries if you plant them not from seed, but from young plants (available in home and garden stores), which you can place either in the ground or in hanging baskets, as long as they have full sun. Purchase plants of the everbearing variety to ensure fruit all summer long. Growing strawberries in containers has the added bonus of eliminating the need for weeding. Even better, potted plants are much less apt to be eaten by pests or succumb to diseases. And there's no need to purchase specially designed strawberry pots; ordinary planters work perfectly well.
1. Select the appropriate pot or basket: a medium strawberry pot or a 12-inch-diameter standard planter.
2. Fill with ready-mixed soil (ask your local garden center which is most appropriate for strawberries) or make your own blend of potting soil, sand, and peat moss.
3. Place five or six plants in the container early in the season and water each day. Keep in full sun.
4. In less than a month, little white blossoms will emerge. Watch for honeybees sipping nectar from the flowers. Strawberries will grow from the blooms, appearing first as small white fruits that redden over the course of several days. When they are red, plump, and juicy looking, pick the berries so they don't rot on the plant. Pick by pinching the stem above the fruit and cradling the berry with a hand so it isn't bruised when it drops.
Plus:
Strawberry Pizza Recipe
Strawberry Fun Facts
