Pineberries

One year, Tasha at work saw an advert for 'Pineberries' on sale at Waitrose for £3.99 a punnet. They were a brilliant white berry with equally majestic red 'pips' and magically had the taste of pineapple. The photo that accompanied the newspaper article could have easily been photoshopped but it was the date of publication that sealed the deal - 1st April - April Fool's Day here in the UK where many UK publications, websites produce many tongue-in-check stories claiming all sorts of things currently not available in this world and this neatly fit into that category!

Tasha was mocked for years for her blunder. So imagine my surprise when I was walking past a hanging basket of Pineberry plants in Paradise Park in 2013. I apologised to her unreservedly and of course I had to purchase them.

I loving looked after them that summer and they were prolific at sending out runners. I actually produced around 15 infant Pineberry plants from the initial 3 that I purchased. Unfortunately, I didn't get a single Pineberry to sample in my first year, which was very disappointing as it is the strange fruit I want to try the most!

I am currently overwintering my plants in the hope that I get a crop this season.

As a back up plan, I looked to buy some seeds to plant and I got caught out! I found a seller on Amazon only happy to provide Pineberry seeds but when they arrived the seeds were an ordinary brown/yellow (similar to those harvested from my Alpine White) not the vivid red that make the variety famous. I immediately researched and found that even if they were genuine they would not have been successful:

http://strawberryplants.org/2013/05/are-fragaria-versca-strawberries-the-same-as-the-pineberry/#more-3662

"With the popularity of the Pineberry increasing because of its unique qualities, some less scrupulous people are renaming any white strawberry they find as the Pineberry. Pineberries are a hybrid (Fragaria x ananassa), and will not grow true from seeds."

I got a refund in the end but do not get caught out!