TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Today is the height of Strawberry Season which brings up a question I gets asked regularly: how did you and Cammy get together? Was it my obsession with apples? Cammy’s passion for growing vegetables? Our mutual love of teaching young people? All of the above? None of the above?

Actually it was all about a strawberry. Most of you probably think that a strawberry is a strawberry, but not all strawberries are the created equal. There are strawberry varieties. As with apples, most strawberry varieties (aka cultivars) are selected—you guessed it—for their large size, productivity, firmness, and ability to ship. Not their flavor! The strawberry at the root of our romance has none of those qualities: it’s medium-size at best, unproductive, not all that firm and would ship terribly if anyone bothered to try. But it turns out that we both love this strawberry and consider it the epitome of perfection. The strawberry is called Sparkle.

Sparkle originated at the New Jersey Ag Experiment Station in 1942. It is a cross between Fairfax and Aberdeen. Fairfax is reputed to be THE best tasting strawberry in the world, but alas it is almost impossible to find any more and neither of us have ever been able to try it. (Fairfax was introduced by the amazing breeder Albert Etter who also came up with the Wickson apple among many others.) The only bad thing about Sparkle from our perspective is that once you try it, it’s difficult to eat any other strawberry. It’s that fantastic. When you go to your local U-pick Strawberry place, ask for Sparkle. It is rarely but occasionally grown commercially, and if your grower really knows their berries, they’ll know Sparkle.