this is a small message i sent to a local farmer here so that you can go thru it real quick...

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thank you for letting us pick strawberies this year from your feilds..

i wanted to let you know a few things while we were picking strawberries and also may come in handy when you go to try to figure out your profits and losses for this year.

one thing we found this year we coundnt get our vehicle close enough to where we were picking...

this might be a disadvantage for some of us for access...

i have been picking from your place for several years and this has become a yearly ritual for our family.

we pick strawberries and make jellies and freeze them as well..

we share alot of our stuff with others as well..

this year we got there a little later then usual tring to be the first ones to get there...

due to being a little later from having worked all day then getting there we didnt get to pick as many strawberries as normal...

we pick about 3 five gallon buckets from your place and this year i had 4 buckets plus a mop bucket that hold about 2.5 gallons..

and had hoped to fill it as well..

so maybe this timeing thing was a blessing in disguise...

we found going back about half ways was when picking -alot of the crop was totally over ran -or your losses were from briar weeds totally over running your strawberries and killed about half or better of your plantings...

and from the half way point going back alot of your strawberries were way over ripe and the bottom half couldnt be picked because they were mush or so over ripe bugs and animals had been eating on them and now eating the good berries..

we were able to pick a few on top that normally would have been green..

i hope in this letter it helps provide you with better quality for the following years..

i am not sure if you changed types of berries from last year either because the taste wasn't as good as last years either..

which can also be contributed to the weather factors as well..

but normally i think your prices were 1.25 a pound a couple of times and think they were 1.35 last year and we had over 3 five gallon bucket totalling anywhere from 60-65 dollars and last year was 76 dollars..

we usually bring them home and clean them and the following day we take 4-6 kids from the neighborhood with us the following day to pick and also get a few more for us as well to even things off here at home..

inwhich i pay for all the berries and they have fun as well...

as i mentioned before i usually spend 150 dollars with you in picking strawberries and due to my time constraints i had only picked 2 and 1/4 buckets before you closed for a total cost to us of 118 dollars or 59 pounds... (2 dollars a pound)

so our losses are that we didnt get our 4 and a half buckets and also the kids didnt get to go to your farm this year because we had already given you your 150 dollars...

so we all went swimming saturday instead..

(i had previously talked to him about makeing money in the feilds)

i know you were trying to make a living from the feilds but for 120 dollars i could plant quite a few plants myself..

and know i can get more then 3 buckets from them.. i have plenty of room to plant them..

your fuel costs for shiping, packageing and delivery was zero.. and we were picking them..

so there was no expenses in any of that for you..

i am sorry this will no longer be our family ritual at your location...

your faithful strawberry picker..

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now this gets me onto a topic i was about to ask...

strawberries.........

i have been trying for years here to grow them on my own.... no luck what so ever....

i pick buckets of them every year...

i have kept the tops and bad spots and even skinned some of them...

how in the world do you get them to keep or save seeds for them...

i have done multiple of things...

soaked in water- dried on towels -buried them to try to get them to keep....

i just planted this years seeds to see if i could get some plants from the left over parts to try to grow them and mb keep the plants..

HHHHEEELLLPPPP!!!!

lol...

thx david dwlcrl...