Last year our farmer-in-chief assigned me the task of disking Veg Hill before we installed deer fence. Her one admonition was “hold off on disking the strawberries until I can transplant them.” Then I forgot and disked them anyway. We’ve now discovered that I may not have killed them after all.

A few days ago Amanda was planting romaine lettuce on Row #7. She discovered a little weed and was about to pull it up when saw a hint of red. Wait! It was the strawberries from last year! I had disked them under as if they were common weeds, and they responded by doing what weeds do. There’s nothing special about the variety, just ordinary Quinault berries from Bonnie Plants. But life just wants to be, you know?

We have 16 other strawberries of four different varieties on Row #11 and are proud of them, but our Survivor Strawberries enjoy a place of honor just north of the romaine on Row #7. The farmer-in-chief has mulched them carefully, and I murmur sweet words of encouragement to them whenever I spend time on Veg Hill. No one wants those guys to make it more than the man who mistakenly plowed them under.