Wild Strawberries

Yes, these are WILD strawberries! HUGE, aren't they?

For years I've battled wild strawberries growing in my garden. Weeds. I've been pulling them out, hoeing them, mulching over them, but whatever I do, they just come back. This year I'm behind in a lot of gardenly things, and around the edges of the section of garden where my raised beds are, the wild strawberries are flourishing. In fact, some of the rows between the raised beds have some wild strawberries growing in them. I just can't get rid of them.

The other day I noticed that many of the wild strawberries are producing berries. Massive berries, for wild strawberries. Most wild strawberries that I've encountered are tiny little things, about the size of my little fingernail, if that. These babies are the size of many domestic strawberries. And their flavor? Superb! They have that wild strawberry flavor with the size of domestics. How can that combination be beat?

This morning I picked a bowl full of these wild strawberries to enjoy with my homemade yogurt for breakfast. Divine. Now I'm wondering...why on earth am I going to all the trouble to start an official strawberry bed of domestic strawberries that need to be pampered, when I could just graze off the ones growing around my garden?

Honestly, I'm thinking I'll propagate the wild strawberry plants that seem to be producing the largest berries and start a large patch of very big wild strawberries.

I'm so glad my husband isn't a fan of strawberries....