Fruit Games and Rain

If I were a betting man, I’d wager most of you know about the board game “Hi, Ho! Cherry-O.” It’s a simple game, originally released in 1965, where a spinner tells players how many cherries they gain or lose cherries each turn. The winner is the first to collect ten cherries in a bucket before birds eat them. This game mainly teaches children counting skills, but as Bruno Bettelheim would be sure to point out, players also develop an appreciation for random chance. It’s an understanding useful to all of us in our daily lives, but for farmers, the element of chance in terms of the weather is crucial to a good harvest. For those of us with window boxes and flowerpots at home, perhaps the element of chance is whether or not we will remember to water them.

For farmers, an awful lot gets left up to the chance of rain. And having enough rain isn’t the only concern, though during the West’s recent drought years it has been a serious one. For certain crops, such as strawberries, too much rain can be a problem as well. Ripe strawberries are so porous, and they absorb moisture from the rain. If they are picked wet, they begin to decompose. Wet berries must be left on the plant, and a strawberry grower has to hope for a sunny day tomorrow that will dry them out before they can be picked. Too many rainy days in a row and some of the berries can be lost entirely.

Whether you are West Coast, Mid-West or East Coast, you can see exactly what’s in your box on our In the Mix page here. Any questions? Email us at info@fruitguys.com or call us at 1-877-FRUIT-ME.

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com