We took the dog for a walk yesterday and stumbled upon an incredible quantity of wild strawberries.
tiny sugar bombs
I have never found so many wild strawberries at one time--only about 10 or 20 plants at a time. But I picked (and ate) literally handfuls. If you have never had a wild strawberry the best comparison I can make to cultivated strawberries is the difference between say, a Lindt chocolate truffle bar and a Hershey bar. They are tiny, but the flavor is so pure and clear with absolutely no filler or dead space in the fruit.Foraging is something I love--it fulfills both the food obsessed part of my personality and the tightwad principles I was raised with. Yesterday, even the 2 year old was walking faster than I was because I kept dropping down to pick more berries. In the end, it started getting dark (and yes, kids went to bed way after their bedtime) and I had to leave many of the berries unpicked. To me this felt like walking past gold coins that were scattered by the edge of the path and ignoring them.
So I'm going back. This time with a bucket. Will I tell you where to find this bounty? The forager in me is highly secretive of such finds, but I promise, after I get one more crack at them I'll share...
2 comments:
wow, kate, what a find. we have a few wild strawberry plants in what passes for our garden, time to look and see how they are doing.
Ok, I've been back, satisfied my foraging gluttony and am now able to reveal the location of this magical strawberry patch: They are scattered along the trail that runs from Barton Dam to Huron River Drive (near the M14 exit). The bumper crop are closer to the dam so I'd park there and start your stroll. There are a few patches of poison ivy to watch out for, but most of the berries are in ivy-free zones which make them safe for kid-pickers.
And I noticed a sour cherry tree with cherries that are almost ripe...
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