Friday, July 26, 2013

Alpine strawberries

I started two types of Alpine strawberries from seed this winter - a pack of traditional red ones I got as a freebie LAST winter, and then some reverse colored white ones I got this year. While many other things I started from seed this year could've, um, done better...these guys took off like gangbusters, including last year's freebie!



Alpine strawberries are considered something of a gourmet fruit - not something you're likely to find in the grocery store or many farmer's markets because they're supposed to be so delicate. And yet they're also sought after for their intense strawberry flavor. I've been waiting for these guys to produce for awhile now - the plants were doing amazing until the really hot dry spell recently, even with soaker hoses on some of them. The ones out in the middle of the yard (where they got the soaker hose treatment) have had many leaves die off, while the ones on the north side of the house tucked into the landscaping are doing much better.

My neighbor, who I passed some of the seedlings on to this spring, told me last week he was starting to get strawberries.  What?!  Hunh.  Y'know, I KNOW I've seen chipmunks dancing around the yard, pausing around the trees that have Alpine strawberries at the base.  I know the plants are blooming - but have I been missing fruits?  A quick look got me the very red fruit above.  It's definitely delicate - I would say almost squishy - and I don't know if that's just the nature of the fruit, or if this one was getting past it's prime.  It definitely had amazing strawberry flavor - more than you get out of the big hard, white-centered beasts from the grocery store!

And then check this out:


This fruit is still too firm - I'll check back in a couple days to see how it's doing.  I wonder if it'll taste very different from the red variety?

1 comment:

anne marie in philly said...

ooooooooooooooooooooh, wish I could have a taste!