It is strawberry picking season soon.
According to a recent study cited by Whole Foods Market, strawberries rank 27th as the best American food due to overall antioxidant capacity measured against food quantity. They also ranked as the 4th best fruit behind blackberries, cranberries, and raspberries. Strawberries are very high in Vitamin C and also contain Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B-6, and Magnesium.
Strawberries require full sun, loamy soil, and slightly acidic to neutral PH level to grow. Strawberries right off the vine will taste different and usually better than supermarket strawberries. Why is that? According to http://www.almanac.com, “supermarket berries tend to be tart with grainy texture; this is because the natural sugar in the berries begins converting to starch as soon as it is plucked from the plant.”
Strawberries require 6-10 hours of sunlight to ripen and the plants should be well drained. Raised beds are particularly good for strawberries like the one shown.
This patch started out with just one plant in the right corner and quickly spread when the owner would bury the runners. These are also Junebearer strawberry plants that are recommended for novice strawberry plant growers.
You can make strawberry jam without a pressure cooker using instead a strawberry freezer jam recipe. Once the jam is ready, you just place it direct in containers in the freezer. Just look up strawberry freezer jam recipe on sites like Allrecipes.com.
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