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Master Gardener Monday – week 5: Berry, berry good

How attached are you to food that grows well in your “native” landscape? (I use “native” as in your “native” land – where you say you are really from.) Here in the wondrous Willamette (rhymes with dammit) Valley, we are blessed with pretty much the “stick in the ground, keep it wet, it’ll sprout” soil (all relative to organic care, of course).  

I am deeply attached to local produce that my “native” land produces. In 1993, close friends threw me a “moving to west Texas (why?) party”.  Lisa, mixed berry pie master, made a pie I will never forget; so good (read: magical) that it was all too clear during a very short stint in a “foreign” land (with no berries), that I knew to return home asap… if only to have direct growing and picking access to Oregon berries.   

Of all the berries, which is your favorite?  Blue, Rasp, Straw, or Grape?  (Okay, I know that grape may not be considered a “berry”, but go with it.)  I love ’em all, and am, admittedly, a little over the top crazy about Oregon berries.  (The only food I cared about for my wedding reception. Thank you cousin Mary Ann Z.)

Oregon Berry Admiration - go on & have some!

Oregon Berry Admiration - go on & have some!

How lucky for me that Bernadine Strik, leading researcher who conducts extension educational programs for the Oregon commercial berry crop industries (training for small nursery growers), presented in MG incubator this week.  

The biggest-ever berry pie of information was served. Yum.  Ms. Bernadine is the author of a bounty of berry pubs for the home gardener. Yeah!  Thankfully a resource so that we might do better, live better, eat better via our home gardens — these pubs will help you know, select, prep, care and harvest. Berry, berry goodness for all to devour as we look forward to spring and summer and gardens that sustain us:

Blueberries – Growing Blueberries in Your Home Garden [B.C. Strik, March 2008]

Raspberries – Growing Raspberries in Your Home Garden [B.C. Strik, March 2008]

Strawberries – Growing Strawberries in Your Home Garden [B.C. Strik, March 2008]

Grapes – Growing Grapes in Your Home Garden [B.C. Strik, June 2006]

Need help sorting through? Berry confused? Desire the ability to forage in your backyard? Contact me, tweet me on twitter and we’ll find the right plant / right place for your garden, ’cause ya know I want you to thrive (& have loads of berry pie).

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