Alpine Strawberries - {Fraises des Bois}

I'm starting a new gardening section in L'esprit Sud Magazine. After many years living in a condo, I now have a chance to have a garden. Although not as big and fabulous as the one from La Bonne Etape, it still allows me to get my hands dirty and experiment with gardening. In this post, I'm talking about the fragrant and delicious Alpine Strawberry a.k.a Fraises des Bois in French and Fragaria vesca sempervirens in the botanical field.

I buy all my plants from the local farmer's market because first of all, I want to be sure that they come from organic source. This is especially important as conventional strawberries can contain a lot of dangerous pesticides*. Also, nurseries selling at farmer's markets usually carry more rare & heirloom cultivars, which is always fun to experiment with.
* For more information, read the EWG's 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Originating from the alpine mountains of Italy, Fraises des Bois are well-known in France and considered a gourmet delicacy. I was so happy to find a yellow-fruited cultivar called "Pineapple crush" a couple of months ago. At first, it mainly create leaves but now, it's really starting to produce a profusion of little succulent berries. Alpine strawberries bear fruits all year long, with particularly heavy crops in the spring and fall.



At the moment, I only have one plant in a pot, but I'm seriously considering creating a border of them now that I've know that a well cared for alpines plant will last from 4 to 6 years. To guide me on my quest, I came across a very nice book The Strawberry Story by Julie Bawden-Davis which gives a lot of good advices on how to avoid the challenges associated with growing this berries in Southern California.

Over the coming months, I will update that article with more pictures as well as my findings...