ABC Rural / By Keely Johnson
No-one was around to pick the hundreds of thousands of strawberries on Anthony Sarks's pick-your-own farm, but instead of wasting the fruit he decided to make 25,000 jars of jam.

Normally, the operation at Blackmans Point on the Mid North Coast would be filled with tourists picking strawberries by the bucket, but the statewide lockdown meant not even locals could pay a visit.
"The Sydney lockdown started the eve of the school holidays in July, which knocked us," he said.
"Then the regional lockdown started on the eve of our big strawberry flush, which is in August/September.
"That's normally when we get a big bunch of tourists and visitors to pick the strawberries."
'Let's take a punt'
But this year that didn't happen and the 140,000 strawberry plants on Mr Sarks's farm were left bulging with fruit that could not be picked.
"If we didn't do something it'd be down in the back paddock," he said.
"As a farmer who puts a lot of time and effort into growing it, it'd break your heart to have to dump it.
"I know there are other strawberry growers that have had to do that because of lockdown."…






