They may be immigrants from another land where there was something that ate them. Perhaps people thought they were pretty and planted them for looks or a wind break or basket weaving or something. They continue to grow either by runners or rhizomes or when the berries drop off and rot on the ground. For some plants, fruits are only one way they reproduce, and the way they spread over greater distances, but they have a back up plan to reproduce close to the mother plant.
And yeah - where I go camping in western New York, there are TONS of these gorgeous gem like big bright red berries…that absolutely nothing ever eats. Not sure what they are, but if the deer and bears and birds don’t want them, I’m not going to be the one to try them!
Not eating something you haven’t identified is a good idea, but don’t go by no one else eating them - we have tons of delicious nanking cherry bushes around here, and I feel like I’m the only person who knows that the cherries are edible and delicious - people just don’t eat them here.
There are several species of Fragaria that are called “wild strawberries”. One type frequently found as weeds in lawns, etc, are truly awful. Those have cardboardy, horrible fruits. The alpine variety, Fragaria vesca, is the one to eat.
Those do sound good! It seems like I’ve run across them before, but I had no idea what they were. Definitely going to go out looking for them in a few weeks! I wonder if the lack of rain will keep them from fruiting?
Those Cape Cod beach plums look good to me - and I agree with RealityChuck - plum jam should be tart.
I wish they grew here in England - but we’ve got something fairly similar - the Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera), although this year, they’ve hardly any fruit on them because of a sharp frost right at blossom time.
We have them all over the Sacramento valley as well. The wild blackberries we pick near a local creek are plump, juicy, and more flavorful than the store-bought ones, altho smaller. Due to the heat, they are all withering now, but we got enuf in the past couple of weeks to make a number of jars of wild blackberry jam. Due to the intense flavor, we were able to use a lot less sugar than with the store-bought ones.
Ah, the joy of wild black raspberries. Quite yummy- they don’t taste like red raspberries or blackberries.
I once sampled some wild grapes in Mistletoe State park in Georgia that had the exact same flavor as grape flavored bubble gum. I believe they’re called muscadines.
Mulberries are delectable and can’t be bought in a store.
I also used to eat a lot of red haws, but I don’t know where any are any more.
I have about an acre of wild blackberries, but there have been droughts every year I’ve lived here, limiting their potential.
I’m surprised to hear that drought has slowed down your blackberries. They grow like weeds all over the Southeast, and drought doesn’t seem to phase them.
Someone inquired about wild tomatoes. Currant tomato seeds are what you want to buy. They are smaller than commercially-grown blueberries by about half.
Living in Cameroon, I had the opportunity to eat all kinds of fruits that I had previously never known existed.
For the most part this was for a good reason- they had large seeds, very little flesh, bland taste, and were otherwise just way too much work for what you got.
Hmm, the only wild strawberries I’ve seen are very small - little more than bloated seeds. However, I do agree that grocery store strawberries are nothing but pink sponges, and blue berries aren’t much better. I really miss season specific berries.
Try the organic varieties. I’ve found that the organic berries (blueberries especially) tend to be much sweeter and larger. Mmm, if I always had the choice, I’d never not buy organic (when it comes to berries at least).
I’ll go with what everyone else said about blueberries. As for strawberries, the wild ones I’ve had have been very good, but not significantly better than the best farm-grown ones (we live near SC, and from farmstands get the best freakin’ strawberries and peaches ever).
And I won’t even touch domestic blackberries, they’re so bland. A good wild blackberry, IMO, will have an intense bitter edge a bit like the edge of strong coffee or tea, and that wild bitterness is heavenly. I’ve gotten marriage proposals off of my blackberry pie.
The best fruit I have ever eaten were commercial varieties, but vine (or tree) ripened. I once went to a “pick your own” strawberry farm (in New Jersey) late in the season. The whole farm smelled like strawberry jam. They did not last long, but they were the best.
An example of an excellent wild fruit - serviceberries (Amelanchier species). They’re small compared to blueberries (especially the supermarket grown-on-steroids kind), but quite tasty. Our lone serviceberry bush bore a bumper crop this year and the serviceberries were good in muffins and on cereal.
