Berry Soon
I’m about tired of apples and bananas, the two fruits I favor during the winter and early spring. Thankfully, strawberry season in the Piedmont is set to start in about two weeks. I have my fingers crossed that a late frost doesn’t damage the crops.
I’ll have a full report in the Journal in early May, but I can’t help salivating now. Freshly picked strawberries are good, but they are made better by being the first fruit of the spring — actually in our area, I think they are the only fruit that ripens before summer.
So, to me, strawberries taste good not just of themselves but because they are in fat a taste of what’s to come — months of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, cantaloupes and more.
I, for one, can’t wait.
The wait may become shorter in future years, because N.C. State University recently reported the development of a new variety that ripens early. Called Galletta, it is said to ripen a week to 10 days earlier than the Chandler variety that the majority of Piedmont farmers plant now.
Also, Galletta is supposed to producer a better quality strawberry than the early-ripening Sweet Charlie variety that currently is the earliest-ripening variety available in North Carolina.
Actually, N.C. State said that some commercial growers have already planted Galletta, though I haven’t found any in our area yet. Galletta plants should be available to home growers for planting this fall.
