Midwestern mom’s strawberry secret

Thank YOU for the informative article on strawberries [“In Search of Perfection,” by Russ Parsons, March 16]. I grew up on a vegetable farm in central Indiana where Mother raised the most delicious strawberries. Her “secret” was based on how I believe the berry got its name: She would place straw around the plants as a mulch.

For 20 years, I owned Rosebrock’s Vegetable Garden Center in Malibu, catering to home vegetable gardeners.

When people asked why I had straw around my strawberries instead of plastic like the farmers in Ventura and Orange counties, I told them that those farmers were growing “plastic berries” and I would explain the foregoing.

Robert L. Rosebrock

Brentwood