Strawberry blossoms & weddings

It's a good thing I only have 2 children - if I had a third child, s/he would want to get married in May and I would have to commit murder - either the child or the husband, I'm not sure which.

Our wonderful d-i-l really wanted a June wedding.  But raising strawberries just doesn't allow for June weddings.  Late May was a compromise.  That was the first child, married 4 years ago this month.

Now the second child is getting married in May, too.  In Scotland.  In a castle.  This is a wonderful and romantic and exciting thing to do.  Farmer Bill & I will be there with bells on & love every minute of it.  But we'll also be thinking about the farm while we're there & we'll need to hit the ground running (that's the royal 'we' since it's mostly Farmer Bill) when we return.

I went for a walk across the berry fields today - the raspberries are starting to bud out - the blueberries have finally decided to put out leaves - and the early strawberry varieties are blossoming like crazy.  One month from blossom to strawberry.  So there may be berries to pick for the farmers' market as early as Memorial Day weekend.  We'll be opening for berry picking the 1st weekend in June is my prediction.  And that's 10 days earlier than average.

We're still waiting to see about the apples.  It does look like we'll have SweeTango, Haralson, Sweet Sixteen, and Keepsake.  It doesn't look like we'll have much for Honeycrisp, a real blow because that is the best selling apple.  SweeTango will sell very well, too, but the trees are still young and can't be allowed to have many apples on them.  There don't appear to be many Honeygold or Regent either.  But we're still several weeks from really knowing.

Last night we had 15 minutes of hail.  We've been a virtual no-hail zone for many years, but it couldn't last.  Since the strawberries aren't bearing yet and the apples are just at petal fall, there wasn't as much damage as might be.  Still, we know there was some.  It's hard to stay upbeat and positive when nature throws these things at you.  All I can say is at least it's not a grasshopper plague...