Do you have a favorite fruit of the season?
Mine is a strawberry. When I was six years old my Grandma Betty took me strawberry picking for the very first time. She taught me how important it was to move around the leaves gently, so I could see all the berries under the leaves, not just the ones that stuck out and were easy to see.
Once we washed the berries, she would bring out her white sugar bowl and let me dip the berry right in the sugar bowl. At 45 I still love to do that with her. My kids know that they can dip their berries in Grandma’s sugar bowl. I will carry on that tradition to my grandbabies.
Grandma’s strawberry jam and grape jelly was our treat for hot homemade biscuits straight out of the oven. She would grab them while they were hot, toss a thick slab of butter in there to melt while she went to the fridge to grab the jam and jelly. My grandmother is the one who taught me how to make strawberry jam. It was 2001, Chris and I were stationed in Corpus Christi, TX and I flew home during strawberry season just to pick strawberries with her and take my son for the first time. That was the year she taught me to make strawberry jam. She taught me how to mash them where there were still chunky bits throughout, sweeten it just enough so it was sweet as the ripest berry (not overly sugary sweet), cook it until it was thick enough to mound on the biscuit just right, and then water bath it so we could have enough for all year. I spent more money on shipping the jars back to Texas than I would have buying jam from the store. The memory, the nostalgia, the skills learned were and still are priceless.
Those memories with my grandmother are what inspired us to plant strawberries in our front yard. They line the walkway to our front door. It’s a piece of joy, memories, and legacy. It’s a piece of my heart that my family that I get to share with all who come. The stories of those special times with my grandmother, and even to this day, she’s still my favorite person to go pick strawberries with. While she can’t go out as much as she used to, we still make a point to grab our berries.
Today I collected the daily harvest, 8 cups of red, ripe berries and snapped a photo and sent them to my dad to show my grandma. Actually our very first berry of the season was ripe on Easter Sunday, so we took it to her and she got to eat the very first one. As I picked the ripe berries today, I reflected on the significance of this harvest season and the lifelong memories made with my grandma.
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You see, the strawberries that line our front walkway were not an easy overnight success. This is the third season for our plants. The first season the vines were small and they didn’t produce any fruit and looked like they wouldn’t survive.. The second season they had started to grow, had offshoots, and only produced small amounts of fruit, but not a huge bounty. By the end of the season we were seeing some pretty large changes. This year the offshoots spread out of those little plants and have become these beautiful plants full of healthy white flowers and are overflowing with fruit. As I picked the berries today I carefully moved all the leaves and inspected the fruit, some were bright red and ready, others still need more time to grow, then there were the brown leaves in the bottom and middle of the plant. If I don’t remove those brown leaves, the rest of the growing fruit will be covered and won't get the amount of light or nutrients needed to grow, will rot and our harvest season will end quicker.
The lesson I've taken away from the strawberry plant is, if you love it, you have to prune it. Be patient with it and protect it. We protect them from severe weather and pests that will destroy the leaves and fruit. Since we use organic methods with our fruit we share some of our harvest with our friendly black ants and the occasional raccoon.
So much is true in our daily life: love, patience, and pruning. We can apply these principles to all areas of our life. The strawberry plant teaches me much about life and about business. We have to nurture it. We have to take care of it and prune it. We have to give it the right environment to grow, intentionally protect, put strategically steps into place on where the sun shines the most and has the biggest opportunity for growth, then you prepare to harvest a bounty that is far greater than you can ever imagine.
What reminds you of growth opportunities? What experience have you had that taught you how to love, prune and protect? What abundance of harvest did you experience? Grandma has a saying, “Pick a little, eat a little". In everything we do, there are areas where we start by picking, have to toss out the bad, then find the good. In those moments we get to enjoy the sweetness of the fruit and we celebrate the success.
This past weekend, our youngest son had the opportunity to travel for an orchestra competition. His team scored a superior rating. This was his teacher’s first superior rating as a teacher. She is an amazing teacher and I am thrilled for her. (She’s taught 3 of my children in orchestra). We talked about the journey. From his first year when he could barely hold his bow straight and so many squeaky sounds. To the muscle memory in his fingers and the confidence in his ability, to the team work the group has established together. We emphasized that the consistency in his daily practice made a difference, and listening to his teacher instruct them in areas they needed to grow in, now they have brought home a huge trophy for their school. We celebrated in a sweet way, chocolate covered strawberries.
As you are preparing for your own harvest, what steps are you taking now for future success? I’m heading back downstairs to grab some more strawberries, this time I’ll stick some in the sugar bowl.
