Eddie, chiming in here. I have actually done tests to see if the plants produce more berries/bigger berries if the blossoms are picked off the first year. I could not see any difference in all reality. The plants that had the blossoms picked off compared almost identically to the plants that I had not picked blossoms. I would not bother to pick off the blossoms, harvest the fruit.
When you get bare root stock, the plants are already established plants, in their second year to begin with. Eat those strawberries is my advice.
I originally several years ago bought 12 barefoot strawberry plants. In the years that have passed since that time, I have had thousands of strawberry plant runners that grew fro those 12 plants. I have enough strawberry plants to give me enough for fresh and frozen strawberries until the next years crop, which will come here too in June, early.
The runners that strawberry plants put out are amazing and I always throw out hundreds in the spring into the compost pile because there is absolutely nothing else to do with them. Anyone that wants the runners, it is my pleasure to give, but there are just so ding dang many. I like to keep at least 2 feet between each plant, with about the same width in each direction. This gives me ample room to get down and pick the berries. Strawberries do like to be fed, so give them some nice compost and fertilizer. I always give mine a dose of time release fertilizer that I spread on the soil around each plant, at the drip line of the leaf. I use time release fertilizer on certain plants and the plants don't care how they get their nutrients, as long as they are fed. Good luck, beautiful day in this beautiful life. Cindi