Russian Alpine Strawberry

Fragaria vesca Origin: Russia Improvement status: Breeding population Seeds per packet: ~25 BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED Life cycle: Perennial EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman loves buying food from international food markets, especially ones that carry the food of his ancestors. Northeast Philadelphia is full of such stores, including a few supermarkets that once you're inside you could easily imagine are in Kyiv or Minsk or Kishinev. The first time he set foot in a NetCost Market (across a large parking lot from the epic Georgian Bakery and its outrageously cheesy kachapuri breads), he was thrilled to find frozen bags of tiny wild strawberries from Russia. Each bag, about the same size as a typical bag of frozen peas, cost an eye-popping $20, but Nate has harvested wild strawberries en masse before, so he knew that was a fair price. He also figured the seeds on those berries would be viable, so he splurged on a bag. Being knowledgeable about wild strawberries, and having tas