Strawberry picking in our front yard

Do you remember our native front yard garden? I have to share with you one of the great benefits of having a no-lawn front yard. Here it is; delicious, wild, organic strawberries that we picked today.

When we took up the lawn on our front yard, we had a small sunny area where we were debating what to plant. I envisioned some wild flowers, but Misha kept insisting on covering the whole area with Ontario native wild strawberries. I must admit I gave him a hard time about the 'strawberry patch' as I thought they were too low for the area and took up one of the most lucrative spots in our yard. At that time, little did I think of the great benefits of them actually producing delicious berries.

In the end, the wild strawberries worked out well as a ground cover. They are very low maintenance, spread fast and survive well under our Norway Maple.

Today was the harvest day and we filled our bowl with tiny, red berries. They take a while to harvest as they are small and hide in bunches under the leaves.  However, it was rewarding to harvest food from our front lawn where two years ago we only had grass growing.

The berries are delicious, sweet and sour, just like the cultivated varieties, but better.

We are debating what delicious culinary recipe to use them for. Might freeze them until we make up our mind.

Mia