North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>]

 On Monday, February 17, 2003, at 03:07  AM, fuwa fuwa usagi wrote:

> I am curious what your favorite strawberry is, and naturally what region you grow it in (strawberries are very, very local...)  I guess I am simply stating I would be remiss to find out I missed a truly outstanding variety simply out of ignorance.
Sparkle.  (Finger Lakes NY, zone 5 most of the time; moderately heavy clay loam, in this particular spot; organic culture.) Earliglow and Jewel aren't bad, but Sparkle is the best I've grown here for flavor. It's a favorite for farmers' market customers; but almost never grown commercially, as it's too soft for a shipper and smaller than what's in style these days. The big hard shipping berries are generally tasteless, in my experience.

> I grow 9 varieties of strawberries here, but for flavor nothing touches Fairfax an old 1923 cross and 1993 release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

I would love to trial Fairfax if anyone knows where I can get some.
I'd also like to find something that matches Earliglow for flavor and earliness, but on which the size doesn't drop off so fast (it doesn't have to be huge, medium would do; but after the first couple of pickings Earliglow tends to drop off to miniatures).

> From: "del stubbs" <pinewoodel@hotmail.com>
> Date: Mon Feb 17, 2003  08:55:52  AM US/Eastern
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] A rewarding little fruit...
> Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>
> Thanks for raising the topic of strawberries.......this spring I plan to finally get a patch in and I don't even know what 'day neutral' means or why.  Del
Means they will flower and fruit at any day length. June bearers quit flowering (and therefore bearing) when the days start to shorten. Day neutrals will keep bearing all summer. I haven't found a day neutral I'm really happy with, either for flavor or for willingness to produce in varied conditions, but I didn't keep trying after the first few trials some years ago; and some people do like them.

-- Rivka