Handbags   (The sad, the bad and the ugly. Non-productive stuff here.)

Just had my first strawberry of 2017.

Of course, these days, foreign, flown-in strawberries are on supermarket shelves all through winter. Pricey, but more importantly, devoid of flavour.

Valentine Day seems to be targeted by them, as opportunity to get the season's sales moving again.

I usually avoid these first offerings, and prefer to await the availability of good quality.

Anyway, today's purchase was Hereford-grown, variety= Driscoll's Lusa Grown under glass, and the Dutch-grown production has been on the shelves since mid March. Not as good as the flavour of main spring-bearing varieties what will ripen next month.

Really looking forward to own grown crop over May/June, but not a heavy production of blossom on plants this year, so I am not anticipating a heavy crop.

No strawberry wine/jam this year.

When I had greenhouses, by manipulating light, and having range of varieties, I used to get fresh strawberries ripening for ALMOST the whole twelve months.

Only two seasons to my world: Strawberry season, and Brussels Sprout season