Wild Wineberries - The Tastiest Invasive Around
They may be invasive but wineberries taste waaaay too good to yank up by the roots. Native to Japan, northern China and Korea, wineberries were introduced to North America and Europe in the late 1800s as an ornamental and for the potential to create hybrid raspberries and quickly escaped from cultivation to become a flavorful fugitive.
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Wild Wineberry Recipes
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Wineberry Galettes
I wasn’t sure what to do with all of these berries, but I figured that they are really just a raspberry replacement that I would just treat them as such. So, I researched some recipes and decided to make my first Galette. I figured the rustic pie and the roadside berries would be the perfect pairing.
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Wineberry Bavarian
This is a slightly complex recipe, something that would be perfect to bring to a special occasion party to impress the other guests. I made this with wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius), but using other seedless berry purée would work.
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Wineberry Cordial
I decided to make a wineberry cordial. Fruit cordials are impossibly easy to make and they’re a fun way to preserve seasonal fruit. Just pick your favorite (I love any berry); make sure it’s perfectly ripe and unblemished; pour vodka over it, and let it sit for a few weeks; strain and sweeten. The elixir you end up with is packed with flavor. I serve cordials after dinner, or before dinner with a splash of soda water over ice.
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Join the Discussion
I would absolutely love to try these berries and I live in an area so well known for being fertile for berry farms that our city has an annual berry festival, but I've never heard of these and I can't seem to find any mention of the plants growing in British Columbia. I see wild blackberries growing everywhere, but I've never seen wine berries. What a bummer - they look beautiful.
I guess wineberries don't grow in your area. They are invasive, so that's not a bad thing exactly, but it's a shame you can't taste them! I've never seen them for sale, though there're probably sold somewhere. I made this post because I was eating wineberries in the park yeasterday and wondered about recipes. The berries are delicious, and unusually beautiful, even for a berry. I also don't notice seeds when I eat them, though I guess they must have them? Raspberry seeds always get stuck in my teeth, which is my only complaint about them. If you ever do see a wineberry, give it a try! There's nothing like them. I don't know why they aren't more available commercially. Maybe you could inquire about them at the next berry festival! ;)