The Fruit Farm

I'm growing strawberries in plastic troughs at the kitchen door and against all odds and my own ineptitude . . . I have fruit.

The foliage is a little tattered and skimpy from chill winds, cold nights, a hailstorm in April, and from the fact that I planted these way too early. But there are red berries galore already.

I've had a few ripe ones on my breakfast cereal and they don't taste like much. Maybe with warmer temperatures as summer comes on, they will sweeten? They are everbearing (called 'Seascape') so there should be more all summer.

Although I have found late in life my taste buds aren't very sharp any more. Very little tastes like much. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with green chiles in New Mexico -- the mouth zing. I'm longing to taste real strawberry flavor, fresh picked.

But in case the strawberries disappoint, I can have blueberries for breakfast soon. My fruit farm is diverse. I have a dwarf blueberry shrub in a white pot next to the strawberry patch and there are tiny white bell flowers promising to produce blueberries.

I can't grow blueberries in our alkaline soil, so I had to resort to a container grown plant, and a dwarf one at that. This is 'Sunshine Blue' vaccinium. Some say it is more ornamental than productive, others say it is a bountiful producer of delicious blueberries. We'll soon see.

Whether either fruit gives me a decent crop or not, I love the fact that the berry farm is right outside the kitchen door. While the coffee drips I can open the door, step outside and harvest breakfast.