wild straberries

[sidelock]

MANY years ago (I was 16) My Scout leaders and I backpacked into the Monongahela NF in WV and fly fished the Cranberry river for a week for trout (best fishing trip I ever had. boy did I learn) When we reached Rt. 39 on the way out while waiting to be picked up I discovered wild strawberries along the road. Big as my thumb and sweet as sugar. Never seen any like them since.

 

[coloradoclyde]

The last time I saw wild strawberries growing wild was when I was a kid too......

 

[tenngun]

I find them about once every five years or so. one or two plants, with two or three little berries about the size of the tip of my little finger. Sooooo good, well worth the wait.

 

[Black Hand]

I see the plants and if the timing is right, the flowers. I don't think I've ever found a strawberry - the local residents make off with them.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yeah I've never seen them larger than the end of my little finger..., but....,

I wonder if by the side of the road, they weren't wild growing, domestic strawberries? Somebody bought a quart, ate most of it, but the bad ones (you know those with a touch of mold at the bottom of the container) they tossed out the window....,

Sounds like an odd scenario, but there are a couple of roads near my home that traverse wooded parkland, and within these woods, along the roads you will find clumps of daffodils and tulips. Some are by the road, some are maybe 10 to 20 yards off the roadway. Seems that avid gardeners tossed what they thought were piles of "spent" bulbs from flowers at those locations...and some of the flowers survived and now are "feral" (for want of a better term).

:idunno:

LD

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Wild berries are usually very small. I have some in a meadow at the end of the property.

 

[George]

I remember wild strawberries in Michigan when I was a kid, they were juicy. sweet and delicious. Here in Kentucky I've never seen them. What we do have is the mock strawberry or Indian strawberry, very small, in bloom right now with yellow blossom. They are safe to eat, but have no taste at all.

Spence

 

[sidelock]

I to have wild strawberries but they are very small. About the size of a match head and I have never found a ripe one---- birds I guess.

 

[Black Hand]

I've had wild strawberries before and I keep hoping to find some in Montana. They are the purest essence of what a strawberry should be - not those things one buys at the store that are poor substitutes.

However, Huckleberries fill the void....

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Sir, what berries do you call "huckleberries. Some places they refer to blueberries and others to a perreniel nightshade plant with dark almost black berries.

 

[Black Hand]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry http://montanahomesteader.com/foraging-preserving-huckleberries/ http://www.distinctlymontana.com/montana-food/06/10/2011/huckleberries

Quite delicious and available only for a couple of months. Haven't been domesticated, so one must forage for them. Stiff competition from animals, birds and other people. I've seen them go at the farmer's market for as much as $55 per gallon bag. Small and very labor-intensive to harvest.

 

[sidelock]

Very much their own kind. People have tried to tame them (like everything else) but has not worked so far. Wife uses them in her commercial jamb business and pays around 40$/ gal. Truly unique.

 

[George]

Be careful when you are out picking those huckleberries...or, are they thuckleberries? William Byrd wrote in 1729 in "The History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina": "Betwixt this and Edenton there are many thuckleberry Slashes which afford a convenient Harbour for Wolves and Foxes."

Spence

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Folks around here refer to wild low bush blueberries as huckleberries. And they were considered untameable until 1911 when a USA botanist hybridized a wild high bush blueberry with a wild lowbush variety. Some of our "huckleberries" are a single running plant connected by common roots that go over an acre. The plants shown in the links look exactly like our wild lowbush blueberries.

Here on the farm, we have a berry patch of domestic blueberries with 50 plants. Including both red and pink "blueberries" they are much sweeter than the wild ones.

We also have an invasive annual variety of nightshade which is called a huckleberry by some southern folk. Small black berries that are said to be poison until cooked.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

We have wild strawberries on the Grand Mesa (about 36 cal :haha: ). Plus goose, service, & Raspberry as well.

 

[jferguson]

I remember wild strawberries in Michigan when I was a kid, they were juicy. sweet and delicious. Here in Kentucky I've never seen them. What we do have is the mock strawberry or Indian strawberry, very small, in bloom right now with yellow blossom. They are safe to eat, but have no taste at all.

Spence

I guess I have had the ones you describe. No taste at all and very little juice, if any. Seen them all my life in SE Virginia.

 

[sidelock]

Hello Old Joe, I will soon be moving back to Williamsburg where my son lives. I have been a BP shooter since early 1970's and my son shoots with NSSA chapter from WB. I will try to contact you when I am back to see if we can meet up. Perhaps we can recruit you and your sons to shoot in my son's company.