My Strawberry Journey!

Strawberry Challenge

I am proud to say that I have cared my straubs and kept them alive!  I used to really like gardening with my mom, so it was nice to return to it.  I liked the anticipation of seeing how my plant fared through the storm, or how much it had grown.  I documented the entire process by taking pictures every so often.  The strawberries have grown the most in the last few weeks due to all the sunshine. 

During spring break, and the weekends, I constantly was moving my pot of strawberries all day to allow for them to soak up the most sunlight.  I was pretty responsible about watering the plants with the exception of a few slips.  For a while, the rainy season helped me out.  The plant was slow to grow for the first month or so.  I didn’t see any strawberries sprout until April.  Once one started to bud, a few more followed, and finally my plant looked like a healthy strawberry plant.  I considered using plant fertilizer to speed up their growth but decided to keep them all natural.  I likened myself to a mother giving birth: I was choosing not to use pain killers, and instead was enduring the long, painful process of strawberry birth. 

Once they started to grow, the berries themselves remained green.  They were not perfectly shaped strawberries like the ones at the store.  This made them more authentic.  The biggest change the plant went through was that the leaves turned a different shade of green.  They gradually turned a lighter shade over the last few months, which was interesting.  I was also pleased to see that flowers grow on strawberry plants.  There were bright white and yellow flowers to accompany the berries. My biggest challenge was dealing with my cats.  I was always finding new places to hide my plant from my cats.  They continued to find them and knock the container over, which was frustrating.  What I learned from the process is how hard it is to produce food.  Even just a few strawberries took a lot of attention and discipline to keep healthy.  I will probably eat these strawberries in ten seconds: only a fraction of the time they took to grow.  It makes me realize how much we take food for granted.  I never think at all how much work went into producing my food, and how much water and gasoline went into each bite I’m taking.  Growing my strawberry plant has made me realize how beautiful food is.  The process, the science behind it, and the end result is all purely beautiful.  I will never look at food the same way again.

The Finished Result: Triplets!