The Wineberry's Winning Ways

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Here are some tips for picking and preserving a little-known but wonderfully flavorful fruit.

What? You say you've never heard of (much less eaten) a wineberry? Well, I can tell you that you're in for a real wild-food treat. Not only are these little gems downright delicious right off the vine . . but when they're simmered into jelly and spread over a hefty slab of homebaked bread, why, wineberries become the kind of food that makes a person give thanks for being born with tastebuds! In fact, my family and I spend months savoring our anticipation of each year's wineberry season (which, in our part of eastern Pennsylvania, is about mid-July), when we can wander through the woods and collect these goodies courtesy of Mother Nature.

HISTORY LESSON

A member of the Rubus genus (as are raspberries and blackberries, as well as a dozen or so other species), the wineberry is native to China and Japan. It was brought to this country by way of Europe and sold as an ornamental plant during the later part of the nineteenth century.

Since wineberries (Rubusphoenicolasius) are relatively new to the U.S., they've established themselves in the wild only throughout most of the eastern states so far. [EDITOR'S NOTE:Western folks can grow their own, though. In case you don't happen to live in an area where wineberries flourish, you'll be glad to know that it's possible to purchase plants by mail from seed companies. One firm that offers the wineberry is Burpee (Dept. TMEN, 300 Park Avenue, Warminster, Pennsylvania 18991). The folks there will sell you one plant for $5.25,_ five for $8.95, and ten for $14.75 . . . plus a $1.00 handling charge per order. Burpee advises that the bushes grow best in Zones 5 through 8.J

Like their raspberry cousins, wineberries produce new canes each year, which then bear fruit the following summer. The brambles usually flower sometime between April and June (depending upon climate), and their berries ripen approximately two months later.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Fortunately, unlike many of their kin (which often seem to grow best where they're hardest to find), R.phoenicolasius appear to possess an affinity for being devoured by hungry berry-hunters .. . be cause their telltale eight- to ten-foot-long canes, which are covered (all year long) with bright red bristles, are remarkably easy to 'spot. In fact, the colorful little hairs make it o possible for a forager to scout out wineberry patches well in advance of harvest time . . . even in the dead of winter, and especially when there's snow on the ground.