Strawberry Update

The strawberry plants are hanging full of little green berries and flowers. As far as I can judge so far this year is completely normal, they are developing just right, neither early nor late. It is too soon to give exact dates as to when u-pick will start yet, however I estimate that u-pick strawberries should begin in about two weeks from now give or take a bit. (mid June) There is one area where the deer hit hard back in the winter that is missing a lot of plants. The snow cover usually helps protect some from the deer. Most of the patch however is just as pretty as can be. I am anticipating a good crop. I will post closer to time details about hours etc. We are considering if it would be better to eliminate the Monday morning picking and do a Monday evening picking instead. If the patch is thoroughly picked on Saturday and the weather is cool they often are almost not ripe enough to pick again Monday morning and would be much better with a few more hours to ripen. The Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning picking times will not change. Do any of you have a strong opinion about this one way or the other? Early crops such as scallions, beet greens, lettuce, spinach and salad mix are coming in strong now. The chard should be ready within a week. Snap peas and shell peas will be ready about the last week of June or first of July. Beans, new potatoes, broccoli, cabbage etc. come a week or two after that. Raspberries start just after strawberry season ends. I hope you all are excited to have many good suppers from the bounty that God puts in the fields and gardens of the north Country- I am. Daniel