Carnivore Confession: I Have a Small Strawberry Patch

(Niko Neko) #1

Living on the coast means sharing space with a lot of local wildlife—including Roosevelt elk, which are essentially giant, majestic goats that will eat absolutely everything in sight. To keep my plants safe, I took a small plot in our fenced community garden this year.

It’s just a tiny raised bed with a few strawberry plants, so the harvest will be small, but it has been a fantastic project. While I’ve shared most of the first few ripe berries, I saved this particular one for myself. It was gorgeous, red all the way through, and tasted like pure sunshine.

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Looking ahead to late summer, I’m hoping to make my annual trek out to the old cranberry bogs to pick wild blueberries. The property was a commercial blueberry farm a century ago; today, the historic bushes still stand beautiful and produce a massive bumper crop every single year. The owner just leaves a little shed out there with a donation box. I’ve missed the peak harvest window the last two years, but this season I’m determined to get a few pints to freeze or dehydrate.

There is something incredibly peaceful—and slightly thrilling—about creeping around the bogs early in the morning as the coastal fog lifts, always wondering if I’m about to run into a black bear.

Between these strawberries and a few summer blueberries, that is about the extent of the plant foods I consume all year. Hopefully, keeping it to a few hyper-local, hand-foraged berries won’t get me officially kicked out of the carnivore club! :strawberry::bear:

#2

Wow! My strawberries are small especially the last ones but they are all gone at this point. (It’s raspberry season now. And sour cherry.) I have flavorful mini ones too (from May to November but they taste bad after the first frost), the big ones weigh probably 1-2 grams, the tiny ones 0.2g? But this is just an educated guess.
Your strawberry is very, very pretty! That’s a great thing about fruits, you can enjoy them with your eyes! Eating them is optional (well not for me, I do taste all of my fruits but my SO is the main fruit eater in this household, by far).

I consider wild berries one of the most acceptable extra items too. I probably ate 1-2 rosehips during some of my walks even when I did my strictest carnivore-ish… The ish is there due to my reluctance to do it 100% (and the main culprit is fruits). I go for extreme low non-animal plant carbs when I am strict. A tiny extra makes a big difference to me.

Meanwhile I can’t even find a wolf (there are a few in my country but not around here). Maybe a jackal or a fox but that’s a rare sight too. My country is very peaceful considering animals. I never need to worry about a snake or spider either, all are harmless or one must be stupid or insanely unlucky to get harmed by them (our vipers means their business in the forests). That’s great as I LOVE snakes and spiders. And zillion other animal groups.

(Niko Neko) #3

Oddly enough, I saw a Canadian timber wolf yesterday. I kinda need to explain a bit that I live in a really unusual region of the US renowned for eccentric, weird, drugs and punks (Outside of Portland on the coast, if you know, you know, haha). So there was a guy with a wolf on a leash, not a harness, not anything that would ever control it, but a normal dog leash held slack. I was in my car and not on my bike at least. I don’t even think it was ‘part wolf’ or a hybrid, I’m pretty sure that was a full blood authentic Canadian timber wolf. I used to live by an animal park and they had one that was really tame that I got to know, so I’m really familiar with them. It was a magnificent animal, but holy cow…did not belong being walked gingerly in a neighborhood.

(Denise) #4

Wow, I thought you lived in another country than I do at first :wink: I live in Oregon, love our coast, not living there at this time. It’s weird for me living inland now, so may move back eventually.

I loved your info on getting the blueberries, growing your own and how you manage to keep the critters out, HUGE goats!

I’m thinking I might manage some strawberries after reading your post, nice “read” early in the a.m. when I couldn’t sleep any longer than 4 a.m. :wink: Thank you much, Denise :nerd_face:
PS I heard about a tornado near Clackamas yesterday, that was a surprise, but the “warning” didn’t last long :slight_smile:

#5

Wow, a timber wolf on a leash! Meanwhile my most exciting animal seeing is sometimes just a shiny bug (or the Racka sheep in the neighbourhood)… My SO gets the better ones at dawn: mouflons, wild boars, deers… But nothing more exciting here (even though I do get exciting if I see these). I am sure I spotted a golden jackal once. I feel blessed if I see a slow worm and I find the name is about as rude as “edible frog”. These wonderful animals deserve better! (We call them “legless lizard” and “goat frog” :slight_smile: )

(Brian) #6

I’ve really gotten to the point where I’m just not going to be all that dogmatic about much of any “title” or “diet”. I know the things that cause me the most issue, the kinds of things I have to be careful about. Many, I do not do. But there are times when I will just knowingly eat some things that others might not approve of. I’m getting older. I know it’s not the time to start heading towards old habits. But by the same token, if there is a nice ripe strawberry hanging on the vine that is calling to me, I AM gonna eat it. And I might eat the next one that calls to me, too. And I AM gonna enjoy it. Do I do that every day, no. I’ll do the same thing with some other “naughties” as well. Candy? No. Sugar filled soft drinks? No. Big plates of pasta? No. But if someone is having a birthday party and is sharing goodies, I WILL have some. No, I won’t eat 6 pieces of cake, a quart of ice cream, and a whole dozen brownies, I’m not stupid. I’d feel like crap if I even tried. But I WILL have a little bit of something that’s totally and 100% naughty that would get me kicked out of the “keto club”, the “carnivore club”, the “low-carb club” or most any other “club”, and I just don’t care. Life is too short and I don’t want to be the guy who gets to the end of it and figures out that I lengthened my lifespan by 2.8 seconds and denied myself years of pleasure. There is a tradeoff, I’m aware. It’s a choice I make, and I’m not sorry.

(Niko Neko) #7

Sorry I’ve been quiet, I have been sick - I’ll be back when I get this kidney stone passed or get thrown into the hospital for awhile and fixed. Sorry everyone! :heart:

(Denise) #8

Hoping, praying the best outcome, I’ve tried to avoid having those, or the gall-stone thing. I hear they are awful :disappointed_relieved:

(Jane) #9

I grow strawberries in a “tower” planter and don’t feel a bit guilty eating them in the summer and I don’t get a huge harvest, so all is well.

I also grew an annual huckleberry plant for the first time this year and it has been fun to harvest the tiny berries. I keep a quart bag in the freezer and when I have enough for a half-pint of jam, I will make some. And enjoy it LOL.

(Brian) #10

I grow 'em to sell. Perhaps having them around pretty much all the time makes them less “tempting” for me. Kinda like the guy who works in a bakery and is around donuts every day, day in and day out. They get to be more of a “this is what I work on every day, kinda boring, I may have one once in a while or taste just to make sure all is as it should be” rather than, “Wow, I wanna eat them all!”

#11

I take a break from fruits, I might have overdone it a little, not the sugar, I feel it is the acid. Never had problems with acid in general but sour fruits can do the trick, even a small amount. Or IDK but I know I had enough. It’s bad enough I need to work with them… Not a very fruity year though so it’s not so bad*. And my SO really enjoys all the canned fruit in winter.
*Except grapes. Uh-oh. I hope my SO will be able to handle it. It’s not good in jars and way too sweet for me to do more than a tiny taste, probably… Thankfully grapes are super long lasting in their place… It looks pretty cool over the terrace though, grapes everywhere :smiley: Main role of our grapes is being pretty over my head if I go out. They provide shadow and lovely leaves (and now fruit clusters everywhere). The first 2 grapes had a miserable childhood… They had almost zero sunshine, I couldn’t help that, I wanted grapes there, next to the house, the sun travelled behind various evergreens. I can be quite stubborn. And they still did get SOME sun and grew slowly… But at some point they reached the sunlit areas and they are very big and beautiful since :slight_smile: And we will need a big ladder to cut them off from some places…

No strawberries in my garden anymore (not even the minis), at least for a while (multiple kinds are supposed to have fruits later too. the minis just take a break, otherwise they bring their minuscule fruits until November. perfect fruit for me: pretty, tasty, its season lasts several months and it provides a very tiny amount at once) but we have the last raspberries, among other fruits.

Yep, I definitely have that. Nothing is as tempting as the thing that is only available NOW… Even if I don’t specifically want it so much, I should use the chance! It’s often easier with things I have often but if it has some great texture or flavor I really like at that moment, those things keep being tempting.

But if I really am not into the fruit at the moment, I can wait until the season is near the end (as long as it’s the kind of fruit that is at least as good in the end as in the beginning). Giving all the first strawberries to my SO is no big deal. I didn’t resist the first plump, sweet blackberries but they are better in the beginning anyway. And it wasn’t much, berries are great like that, a little goes a long way. My SO eats way more (still a healthy amount. for him) and I put the rest into jars for him.

(Bob M) #12

I really like the home-grown strawberries, as they are so much better than store-bought. This year, though, my wife decided to grow flowers instead of tomatoes, strawberries, hot peppers.

I don’t eat much fruit, mainly because I overeat it. I did have some cherries, because we got some for whatever reason, and I didn’t think anyone but me ate them, and I hate to throw away food. Turns out that my oldest daughter eats them.

#13

My tiny veggie patch (hard to find a place in my garden that is level and get sunshine) is almost half flower :smiley: I have a flowering gladiolus right now. And my lavender grew a lot this year.

Who doesn’t like cherries? (Rhetorical question, obviously tastes differ and nothing is beloved by everyone. But cherries must be highly popular.) They are wonderful especially our crunchy lovely ones. Though late black ones are even better as more flavorful and a little goes a long way, useful for a low-carber who loves fruit and can’t and won’t resist temptation. With a fruit lover SO who brings fruits home when we have too much already… Sigh. Well he eats them if I don’t so I shouldn’t complain…

One year I drew a different style cherry picture every day for many days :slight_smile: Cherries have such a wonderful unique shape and they are shiny too. Most fruits are quite beautiful.

(Niko Neko) #14

Are you an artist Shinita?

I absolutely love to set myself a project goal. This year my goal was to go outside at lunch and draw at the river on nice days. I haven’t gotten to that yet (you’ll see my post probably about being sick…lol) I love to draw and paint and tinker creatively it’s a little difficult right now with my swollen fingers but I’ll keep going! :smiley: Sorry I’ve been quiet lately!

#15

I was away in a 8 bit computer party, that;s why my answer is delayed - but those parties tend to make me wanna draw again (on C=64).

Well… I rarely draw but I still feel it’s important for me…? I put lots of effort into it in my life, I draw on and off. I am not sure I can call myself an artist, I don’t meet my own standards. But I wish I will be? Or I am a beginner, even after decades (I was awful as a kid and I hated that and stopped at 7-8 years old. yeah we had assignments but school drawing is really low level, that doesn’t count. I picked it at 27 and things go very slow since).
I NEED creation and I really was bad at it lately. I do my best to pick it up again. I am a programmer/coder too, or was. And will be.

I collect and paint little rocks too :slight_smile: Tiny portraits, animals and simpler things. It costs almost nothing, I use up so little acrylic paint for each one :smiley: But it’s fun. I have stopped that for months too. I wasn’t in a good space of mind I think. And politics got interesting in my country too but it can’t keep my focus so much anymore. Good.

So I am a more artistic mood now and hopefully it will stick.

(Niko Neko) #16

My neighbor has a rock garden facing the road and they recently added this stone (along with another sign that says, “Area 52”)

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Neighbors rock declaring, “2023 Alien AND Yeti sighting” …I think they chose the word Yeti because they didn’t have room to write Sasquatch or Bigfoot. I’ve had the irresistible urge to paint a big foot running along side and alien and place it in their rock garden :smiley:

I think I might have an OCD art streak, I have to either be writing or drawing or I feel really stressed out. :stuck_out_tongue:

(Joey) #17

Fabulous! Enjoy :yum:

A bit like our “keto-owned and operated” tomato garden.

We savor the extra lush plump ones at harvest time to share with neighbors.

Fall is the time of year we humans are properly adapted to a brief and seasonal bounty of fruits and vegetables. I.e., not 365 days a year in the grocery aisle. There’s a healthy time for all things.

:tomato: :tomato: :tomato:

#18

@NikoNeko: What a big rock :smiley: I find tiny but pretty ones with deers and other animals on it (and an url), in the wildlife park. We have this sometimes, it can be rock or tiny knitted things somewhere in the city…
My village has a snake made from bigger and smaller painted rock, I keep forgetting making a section and bringing there…

My garden has problems despite the weather being not too warm and we do water it every day (except when we were away but that was ONE day). I still can’t grow zucchini here, apparently, they start to grow and then the end rots and I cook the still small rest (maybe I should look up why). They are the most beautiful golden ones though.

And summer. Spring too for greens. Or all year round at the right climate. The fruit season is the bigger part of the year here, pretty long even if I only count the wild stuff but at least those are tiny and often not even very sugary but who cares, I couldn’t eat much of the sugary ones either…
Modern fruits are another thing entirely. Easy to sugar poison myself with them if I go wild a little. Even my SO manages that and he is thriving on high-carb, high sugar. Well fructose is more problematic but maybe the a lot of almost pure sugar (as far as macros go as lots of water is included) in one sitting is the problem…
Vegs are fine for me (now that I don’t eat them galore) but fruits are super sugary (with some exceptions) and often acidic too. Fine in moderation but I don’t NEED them every day of the year (as I totally did until several years ago, apparently. I did try to skip a day, didn’t end well). They just around me all the time. +5 jars today, no big deal but it will be nice to have a very short break soon.
I don’t even want to look at fruits sometimes and I adore their looks.