North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

Two good things about alpine strawberries:
1.  They fruit from May till frost, which can be close to Christmas here.
2. Their flavour is almost perfumy, but you must let them get very 
red to get the flavour.  A handful added to a bowl of big commercial 
strawberries improves the flavour of the whole.

I've been growing them for about 35 years.  I guess I started with a 
packet of named seeds, probably from Thompson and Morgan.  I planned 
to select the best plants and pull the crowns apart for 
transplanting, the same way one multiplies primroses.

I never got around to doing that.  The first year I tossed any 
berries that were moldy or slug-eaten, and those berries started up 
new colonies of seedlings.  I have them everywhere in my yard now. 
Anyone in the family who wants them will eat them in the garden, or 
else pick a handful to put on ice cream, cottage cheese or porridge. 
If I am going to make anything major, like a pavlova or shortcake, I 
use the big berries.

--
Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil