You may remember I was tinkering with a shrub recipe (drink, not woody plant!) recently, and requested help with names?
That was for a strawberry story on Gardenista today - a tale of two strawberries, and which one survived the move to Harlem. And yes, the drink has a name.
And, another yes, I still have strawberries on the terrace, right now. Well. Three. Ripe ones, I mean.
And I recently pre-ordered a copy of Michael Dietsch's Shrubs: An Old Fashioned Drink for Modern Times. Michael is a mixmeister who writes for Serious Eats, and is married to a food blogger whose posts I've read for years, Jennifer Hess.
Hi Marie, I used to have the Rügen strawberry on several balconies in Europe and was sad that I had to leave it behind when moving to NY. Hopefully the GRDN will have it again in spring. Out of curiosity I researched its origin: 1920 the first plant was developed on the German island Rügen in the Baltic Sea. I had a yellow fruit variety as well which tasted slightly sweeter. I am puzzled though about the name "alpine strawberry" in English while it is "forest strawberry" in German.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great blog, it is a wonderful inspiration for myself to do more exploring and foraging in the surprisingly "wild" NY.
Kerstin
Hi Kerstin - I love plant histories. Thank you.
DeleteCommon names for plants usually vary a lot, and Fragaria vesca (the botanical name, which precedes the cultivar name) of this strawberry is also known fraises des bois/forest strawberry, wild strawberry, and Alpine etc. Alpine is what most nurseries call it, anyhow.
Botanically, though, the true Alpine strawberry is Fragaria alpina.
Enjoy wild NY :-)