Let’s talk about an amazing berry - the wild strawberry. Perennial ground cover, extremely aromatic and tasty, it grows in the sunny spots in the forest, ready for foraging. It belongs to the same family as roses. The well known, sold year round strawberry is also the type of wild strawberry - it is called pineapple. Do you know this berry?
It does not store well, it can't be transported far and most importantly, it is hard to grow and gather it in large quantities - these are the reasons wild strawberries cannot be found in stores or fruit stands.
You could forage them - or you could grow them. And trust me, once you try it, you will be looking for wild strawberries again and again. It is actually quite easy to grow them! After the small bush establishes itself on the garden bed, it starts to remind me the good old dynamo machine. It produces flowers and has small green berries and slightly bigger “one side pink one still green” berries and fully ripe red berries - all at the same time. You better inspect your wild strawberry patch daily - you will never leave empty handed. The ripe berries have a tendency to hide in the middle of the small bush, and you will have fierce competition from all the bugs and snails in the neighborhood -they love the small berries. Normal strawberries are long gone, raspberries are long gone, figs are gone - but small bushes of wild strawberry still produce flowers and churn out berries (btw, it is self fertilizing). I was picking wild strawberries here in zone 6 of NJ in late November, and again in December - as long as there was no snow.
This year the bed of wild strawberry was showing some decline - like normal strawberry it appreciates some revival every couple years. Wild strawberries spread by stolons, or runners, that grow along the ground and take root in new locations. So the bed became crowded and in late fall I dug the new plants out and moved them to new location. A couple of plants were put into small pots and brought into greenhouse. We kept the greenhouse rather cold this winter. But the small plants are doing their regular routine - and happily producing berries in February!
Interested? Contact SOEL Farm, buy a pot with wild strawberry bush, give it a nice sunny bed and you will be hooked in no time!
Commenti