Mid-Summer Harvests

I got from work today and made my usual trip into the garden, to find that the crazy strawberry patch was polka-dotted red with strawberries.  This year is the best crop we have had so far, courtsey of the glorious sunny days we have been having and the summer rain showers of the last few days.  I invited the kids strawberry-picking, but they declined when they saw bugs.

These will be waiting for them when they get back from madrassah in  a little while.  I noticed that Sister Safiyyah also has her first strawberries in.  I completely agree with her when she say's:

"First strawberries!  Yum!  Once you eat strawberries from your own (or someone else's) garden, you will NEVER buy them in a store again."

So true!  If you have never tasted strawberries fresh from the plant and ripened in the sun, you are missing out on a blissful experience.  Not much of what grows in England is sweet, lacking the sun to be really sun-drenched when ripening, but strawberries are one thing the English have managed to get exactly right.

I am hoping to go strawberry-picking with the kids soon as we do most years (and have done since I was a child).  Cannot wait.  In the meantime the neighbour's garden is unused (he lets the house and the tenant does not use the garden) and he has a cherry tree that is laden with cherries which look very much like the ones below (which cost £2 for a lb).  Despite the pale colours, they are ripe and very sweet and firm which is how I like fruit.

Last year the owner gave us permission to take what we wanted and we gorged on and shared three buckets full.  This year I can see them turning red, so hubby will soon be over the fence and up the tree to bring us back cherries insh'Allah.