I remember my first wild strawberry. The sweetness was unparalleled. It's something everyone should try once.
Maybe I just had an unripe one once, but it was completely red on the outside like in OP's images but when I bit into it, it was completely white and bitter
Wild blueberries on the other hand...
There's a plant called false or mock strawberries that looks incredibly similar but tastes like you described/very bland. They have yellow flowers and a few differences but otherwise are pretty similar.
My grandfather relocated a bunch of wild blueberries into his yard and cultivated them. I learned many years later that they were actually called Sparkleberries.
That's what I've always run into
Depending on where you live, it could’ve been a mock strawberry
Yes, very delicious!
And they also grow great in a pot on the balcony, just dig out a plant in the woods, they'll multiply like weeds
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Just wanted to add: If you are in an area where tapeworms or similar parasites are prevalent, be sure to give any wild berries a good rinse before eating
Oh damn I did not know about this! Does rinsing make a significant difference in safety? Doesn’t seem to be super common or well-researched. I wonder what the level of risk is with foraging.
To be honest I’ve been eating unwashed wild berries my whole life so hopefully not too risky haha.
Same here, never had any problems so far, but every so often I hear or read that one should be careful 😅
From what I know rinsing should be good enough, however I have literally no way to back this up, so do your own research. Whenever I have access to clean water I rinse anyway, if it might not help, it certainly won't hurt.
For instance, this German article says that it is likely a myth that wild berries are an infection vector, since there have not been many / any cases traced back to this source conclusively, but that it is hard to definitively link it to a certain source, since it takes a lot of time from contact to the first symptoms.
Even so, the infection rates are going up in the last few years, but that may be completely unrelated to wether people pick wild berries or not
How are the worms getting around? Cats?
Probably, most cats I've met love to shit in fruit fields
In my area (Central Europe) mostly wild animals, foxes in particular
I'm jealous, those look so good! We have the annoying ones here that taste like nothing. I think they're called wood strawberries or something like that.
Yeah those aren’t real strawberries, it’s a case of biomimicry! Luckily we don’t have a fake ones here. If you look carefully they are not too hard to tell apart though.
It keeps raining where I am but I should check if it has affected the green cherries on my way to work.
Where are they native in North America? If they are?
Not sure on the accuracy on this image, but I can confirm that they grow in Georgia and not in Michigan that I've seen.
There's very few maps of their range that I can find that shows the whole of North America. (Were harder to read though or had no legend.)
Yes basically everywhere.
South America too, mostly in milder climates like mountains.
Are these vesca or virginiana? I've only had vesca which is definitely super delicious, way better than any store strawberry lol
I actually don’t know, I just know they are strawberries and tasty.
I bet, they look tasty!
The kind around here taste like nothing. I'm assuming it's the false one. Cool find.
Yeah in certain areas the fake ones are a common lawn weed, way more common than true strawberries. But as far as I know, true strawberries are always delicious!
Wild Strawberries are such a treat to find, truly a wonderful thing to find!
Some music for your foraging https://youtu.be/M1bgQSGFHcA?si=26wSuT3MWKc_I5My
