Monday 21 June 2010

Rumours of stolen strawberries

One of the things I love about Stanley Road allotment site is the gossip that gently feeds its way round the plots. Sometimes gossip can be hurtful and harmful, but other times it's a godsend, like when tomato blight is working its way down, or when a site inspection is imminent.

We recently heard a rumour that someone has been stealing strawberries. Other plotholders have noticed them going missing. I did wonder why we hadn't got any yet, because normally we would reap the first harvest at the end of May. Every time I have checked the plot there have been none ripe, despite lots of rain and sun recently.

It was disappointing as we have been building up to this strawberry harvest for years, weeding, feeding and watering vigilantly. Some of the plants are supposed to be at their peak this year, and we were hoping for enough to make jam.

On the other hand, we've no evidence that anyone has taken any, and so for now, I think I will jump to the conclusion that it's our own neglect rather than someone else taking our crops!

4 comments:

  1. Have you seen flowers and/or green berry beginnings? That would be a pretty good indicator. :-/

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  2. Hi Kitty

    We have had flowers followed by green berries, so I guess that settles it!

    We know they've gone I suppose, am just reluctant to think the worst. Perhaps its animals?

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  3. Oh no! How disappointing.

    Maybe it was birds?

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  4. Well, there's a bit of an update. It seems we have got a few problems going on here.

    Firstly we seem to have populated half our plot with a very small strawberry variety, so they have a very small crop.

    Secondly it has been very dry, so the crop is bound to be smaller than a normal year.

    Thirdly the birds probably are picking some off.

    Given all of this, it seems unlikely that anyone would bother picking off our meagre crops! I think we will have to follow mangocheeks example and go to a PYO farm to make jam!

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