late spring, red berries in abundance

I think it will be a Summer of Abundance. At least, it's starting out that way. Last year we planted six little strawberry plants in the corner of the garden. They spent the summer looking somewhat sickly, and I think we got one berry from them. This year they came back in a ferocious kind of way. I couple weeks ago we got our first three berries, and I was so excited about the precious little berries that I took the photo above. Since then, the strawberry patch has produced about four quarts of berries. I am totally amazed.

The cherries are a similar story. Our house had a mature, fruit bearing cherry tree when we moved into it 6 years ago, but this is the first year we've had anything resembling a harvest. Either bugs, birds, or late frost have prevented us from enjoying these tasty fruits. Then this year—pow! There are hundreds of cherries and the birds don't seem to care. They are more interested on the service berries out front.

I've got a lot of picking and processing to do. :-) Not a bad thing for a totally beautiful holiday weekend. I'm planning on doing more documentation of the garden this summer. I've created a flickr photo set for it here, just in case you'd like to follow along.