JULY MUSINGS
Seasonal stories and notable happenings from the team behind Ochre Botanical Studios.
Thank you for joining us here!
After the frenetically engrossing months of May and June, July has tinkered along comparatively more steadily. I would love to say it’s been leisurely, but it is summer and we are wedding florists. The few among us with children off from school on their summer holidays have taken some family time and the rest of us have also had a chance or two to catch our breaths and immerse ourselves here and there in summer’s other delights… you know, aside from the many beautiful flowers of course!
There have been gardens to visit, weddings to attend (as guests!), many sunny dog walks, swims in now marginally more bearable bodies of water and evenings that stretch out seemingly endlessly. The garden has been producing bountifully, and with dedicated intensity thanks to the glow and warmth of the sun intermixed with a few welcome showers of rain… ahh nature is a magical thing.
Even when I lived in the southern hemisphere, summer signalled the return of one of my favourite seasonal treats – strawberries. Perusing the supermarket shelves, you might think it a ubiquitous, obvious choice, but clichés are so named for a reason. Now in Scotland, I am fortunate enough to live in a house with a garden which is home to both cultivated garden strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) and wild, alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) living happily side by side. We are near the coast in East Lothian, where the soil is generally considered to be sandy and moderately acidic – characteristics strawberries are thought to value.
Those of you who follow along with us closely will know that the little wild strawberries are equally plentiful in our cutting garden in Granton and, armed with this knowledge, you may have also noticed a strawberry or 5 sneaking into our arrangements during the summer months. We do so love them: tiny, perfect things.
A member of the larger Rosaceae, or more commonly ‘rose’ family, strawberries (of which there are many cultivars) share certain similar characteristics with roses – as well as certain symbolic associations – love apparently being one. Not unlike Rosa canina (the native dog rose), strawberry flowers tend to consist of 5+ rounded petals centred around a vibrant yellow centre. Their compound leaves are gently serrated and deep, glossy green in colour. Familiar. Special.
You’ll often find us using these sweet, cheerful flowery faces or pale, unripe berried stems in a buttonhole early on in the wedding season. If a colour palette allows, we also love to use the ripened berries in dainty little bowl arrangements where their sherbety fragrance can waft out and delight guests sitting down at the table.
Ah the smell of strawberries! We’ve eaten them in so many different ways over the past month here at home – fresh and warm, picked and gobbled straight from the garden, baked into a Victoria sponge, on scones with liberally applied jam and cream, and piled high into a pavlova with raspberries and currants to be shared with friends, to name but a few.
And when there are still more to be picked (there always seem to be soooo many!), I love turning them into jams that we can stash away until the darker, colder months when access to summer in a jar is very much needed for a bit of extra cheer. I wish someone would bottle the sticky, sweet effervescence that is strawberry jam in the making. We can christen it ‘Parfum de fraise bouillante’ – these things always sound more romantic in French.
Those of you who have delved into any kind of research about strawberries will know that a true ‘berry’ a strawberry is not – and if you really want to get technical, botanically speaking they are not even considered to be a proper fruit! Like its friend the raspberry, a strawberry is what is known as an aggregate accessory fruit. Its real seeds lie inside those little flecks that decorate their shiny, scarlet bodies, and it is those flecks that are in fact the true ‘fruit’ of the strawberry plant! Every day is a school day.
‘Straw-enlarged receptacle’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, so I’ll stick with strawberry, thanks very much. And I hope you’ll join me in my ode to the already much-celebrated strawberry. From Virgil to Shakespeare, William Morris to Hieronymous Bosch, they have had a lot of time in the spotlight but, well… I am inclined to say they deserve it! Yum!
Places near Edinburgh where you can PYO fruit
CRAIGIES FARM, SOUTH QUEENSFERRY
Between summer and autumn you can go and gather fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries, currants, blackcurrants and gooseberries at Craigies. Later in the year you can also pick your own pumpkins. A fun day out for the whole family. Booking required.
CAIRNIE FRUIT FARM, CUPAR
Head over to Cairnie’s in Fife between June – September to pick your own strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants, brambles, gooseberries, cherries, pumpkins and sunflowers too! No booking required for fruit or sunflower picking.
GRANTON CASTLE WALLED GARDEN, EDINBURGH
The dedicated volunteers at GCWG grow lots of different kinds of fruit from strawberries and blueberries to currants and even apricots! There are also many wild areas in the garden where the brambles are left to roam free, so do come along, fill a punnet and make a donation to the garden charity. Saturdays and Sundays 2-4pm.
Until next time...
