North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jukka K <jpkrvi@yahoo.co.uk>]

Melissa,

Similarly to cloudberry, arctic raspberry has an almost magical reputation 
here in Finland. It is a very temperamental berry that grows naturally in the 
whole of Finland but sets fruit only in some areas. It used to be a companion 
of the old farming methods and flourished on the trench banks and gave 
plentiful crops of berries to the shepherds (and anyone walking along the 
sides of the meadows that were not sprayed with herbicides like they are 
now). My father remembers well how he collected handfuls of the berries in 
the cow pastures when he was a kid.
The flavour of arctic raspberry is quite unique and almost everyone finds it 
very delicious (contrary to cloudberries, for example, that some people find 
too pungent). However, the taste is very volatile and easily lost when the 
berries are cooked. They say that the aroma is best captured by extraction 
with ethanol. Indeed, arctic raspberry liquor is a traditional delicacy here.
Some arctic raspberry breeding has been done in Finland. A few selected 
cultivars are now commercially available here (Susanna, Pima). It has also 
been crossed with the North American variety R. stellarcticus which is more 
robust and heavy bearing than the European cousin. A few cultivars from these 
crosses have also been released (Astra, Aura, Sofia). Finally, arctic 
raspberry has been crossed with the common garden raspberry in Finland 
(cultivars Heija and Heisa). I haven't tasted these berries but it is said 
that they have only a very slight arctic raspberry aroma.   
In the garden, arctic raspberry requires a moist and peaty soil. It is a weak 
competitor so weeds have to be controlled very carefully. It can be initially 
planted in black plastic similarly to strawberry and the holes gradually 
enlarged when the plants spread by suckers, finally removing the plastic 
altogether. Or you can plant it in a spot similar to it's natural habitat and 
allow to naturalize!
The berries ripen quite unevenly and remain tightly attached to the bases. 
Only fully ripe, deep ruby red berries taste good.
Good luck with your arctic raspberries!

Jukka
Helsinki, Finland
 


--- On Wed, 18/3/09, Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [NAFEX] arctic raspberries
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Wednesday, 18 March, 2009, 4:45 PM
> Garden catalogs are dangerous. I'm
> just about to send in an order to One Green World for some
> kiwis, which I know do well here, and I get distracted by
> arctic raspberries, Rubus
> arcticus L. subsp. x stellarcticus, which
> I've never heard of. They sound great in the catalog,
> but then again everything sounds great in catalogs. Can
> anyone confirm or deny that they're worth growing?
> 
> Melissa
> zone 5, central NY
>  
> 
> 
> 
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