When?  When will those berries turn red?  You can't wonder more than we do.    When will the rain that has been blessedly pouring down enter the strawberry cells and swell them to juicy plumpness?  When will be that magic moment when just enough heat units have warmed the berries to cause them to change color and develop that deep sweetness we are longing for?

For the first time in 4 years, we haven't had a late frost, and so we'll get to taste the early season fruits.  Even I can hardly remember what an Annapolis or Sable taste like.  I've become more familiar with the wine-sweet Cavendish, a mid-season berry, and the peach-sweet Winona, a late-season berry.  Any day now, I'll get to taste the early season berries.  

For the first time in 4 years, we haven't had an infestation of thrips, a nasty bug that destroys our strawberry blossoms.  The pessimist in me wonders what nature will hurl at us next, since we've managed to dodge the frost and the thrips.  What challenges will this harvest bring? 

Then, there's the baby.  He's a blessing and a delight, but will I be able to keep nursing him throughout the busy strawberry season?  Nursing is such a pleasure and a joy.  It represents for me everything about eating local that I treasure.  No packaging.  No carbon foot print.  No preservatives or additives.  A relational activity rather than an impersonal one.  Everything that we want our farm to be for every person who drives into the yard.  

Which brings me back to that question -- when will you be driving into our yard?