To eat or not to eat: Sam Davie seems to be contemplating the future of this perfectly ripened Cabrillo strawberry, which he picked with his family on Sunday at Rochester’s Sweet Strawberry Patch on Diggora Rd.
Strawberries and cream will be on the menu this summer in Rochester as a burst of early summer sunshine has the fruit ripe for picking.
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Almost 6000 strawberry plants are located on the Diggora Rd property, which was developed by Rochester’s Lindsay Hoskings.
This is the fourth season that the Sweet Strawberry Patch has been operational, swinging open the gates two weeks ago in a slower start than usual because of colder weather.
“We are ticking along nicely now that the weather has warmed up. We’ve just had the first surge,” Lindsay said.
There are 27 rows of strawberries under the protective netting, each with 200 plants and Lindsay has support in the form of daughter Jessica and son Jayvier.
He said the strawberries would thrive on anything over 20 degrees and under 32.
“Last year we had strawberries until the start of May, they come in surges,” he said.
Lindsay and his children notify people of opening dates via the Sweet Strawberry Patch facebook pace, ensuring there is enough fruit for an influx of foot traffic to the site.
“Considering there aren’t that many people around at the moment the foot traffic has been pretty good,” he said.
“We like to make sure there are enough strawberries, and good enough quality, when we advertise opening days.”
Lindsay, who works at Humes in Echuca during the week, offers two varieties of strawberries, Albion and Cabrillo.
Albion is a sweet and more traditional variety, which he says is appealing to anyone with a mature palate.
Cabrillo is a bigger and more juicy variety, which younger pickers at the patch seem to enjoy.
“The most important thing to remember is that when you pick a strawberry that locks in its favour. They don’t ripen after being picked,” he said.
“The redder the better.”
Sam Davie’s striking red hair often has familiar terms of affection thrown in his direction. Among those is “Ginger”, the less-appreciated “Ranga”, Red-nut and even Bluey. It was fitting that the 10-year-old found himself among the vines of Rochester’s Sweet Strawberry Patch during the weekend, where he could add another colloquial Aussie term — “Strawb” — to the long list of red-haired references.
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