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Not just any Lincolnshire strawberries, but OUR Lincolnshire strawberries! Until we moved to the east of England we'd never grown this particular plant. We'd tried and been successful with many vegetables and quite a few fruits, but, apart from the ornamental Alpine variety, strawberries had never featured in our gardens. From a modest start with four plants three years ago we now have a very productive bed, complete with a netted frame for protection from birds, that gives us countless pounds of fruit. Such has been this year's crop that we have had plenty for ourselves, have made a big batch of jam, and there's still been a lot of punnets for friends and neighbours.The fact that we have had (and continue to gather) a great crop of strawberries when the exceptionally dry spring has reduced and even obliterated the local "pick your own" fields is surely testament to the necessity of the water that we applied during the hottest, driest spells. In fact, our raspberries have been equally prolific, and must also have benfitted from our watering.
I took these photographs of a few of the recent pickings at my wife's suggestion. I chose to show them against traditional blue willow pattern because the red of the fruit and the green of the leaves always look good against the blue of the small, re-used plastic boxes that we collect them in. The main photograph was quickly taken hand-held, but the smaller one was a little more considered, and featured the tripod as the camera data suggests.
photograph and text (c) T. Boughen
Photo 1 (Photo 2)
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority (Manual)
Focal Length: 100mm
F No: f7.1 (f16)
Shutter Speed: 1/80 (1/4)
ISO: 320 (100)
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV (0 EV)
Image Stabilisation: On (Off)
