mootube
Full Member
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:27 pm

First strange fruit of the year. Pernettya

Just a little report on Pernettya as an additional fruit for your garden.
I bought 2 Gaultheria Pernettya (Bell's Seedling) plants online last week and they arrived yesterday so my 3 year old and I opened them up to find 2 pink berries, still on each plant. An unexpected surprise then and a taste of things to come. Being older and much slower, I managed to successfully grab the last remaining berry and hold it gloatingly out of harm's way. I was looking at a deep pink berry or drupe of about 8mm with quite firm, creamy white flesh inside and no discernable seeds. It tasted quite sweet with an original, pleasant flavour and left me wanting to eat another handful. My little'un gave a very positive response to "Daddy grow those?" which is precisely the reason for me buying them in the first place. :wink:

Most of the Gaultheria family has scope for eating. These Pernettya look nothing like the Gaultheria Shallon I bought, looking very similar to cranberry (vaccinium macrocarpon). A shrub growing to about 1.5 meters high, the berries are various shades of pink which is why it's normally grown and the plants are normally dioecious. The Bell's Seedling cultivar that I bought are hermaphrodite so if you only want one plant, make sure it's a hermaphrodite variety. I want to grow about 20 of these, based on my little experience. I won't buy them because propagation is apparently quite easy. One way is to pile up the earth to cover the base of the branches, where they'll root themselves.
Anyway, though I don't think you'll be buying the fruit at the supermarket, it's well worth getting a plant and sampling yourself. Cheers.

opabinia51
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 4659
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

Thanksy a lot Mootube. The fruit you describe sound very interesting. I may add them to my edible landscape(s).

The Helpful Gardener
Mod
Posts: 7491
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
Location: Colchester, CT

G. procumbens is the local wintergreen for us (althought the common name is also applied to Pippsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata), another little cutie (but a tough garden plant as it needs a specific strain of micorhyzii and sandy soil)...

Are yours evergreen as well?

HG

mootube
Full Member
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:27 pm

Procumbens is one of the berries I'm searhing for. Not sure I'll like the Germoline taste much with that one but it's worth getting a plant to find out. Yes, the Pernettya (G. mucronata, aka Arbutus mucronata or Pernettya mucronata) are evergreens and the fruit sometimes survives on the plant through the winter and can still be there with the next years fruit. That must be the reason the berries were still on the plants. We shouldn't have eaten them really because I had no idea what had been sprayed on them or where they came from.
Just after I posted the thread, I did a Google search on the plant. There are certain sources that state Pernettya as highly poisonous, even the fruit. A little bit of further research led me to https://www.paghat.com/pernettya_yum.html which explains the two completely different messages about Pernettya.
One other unusual thing happened shortly after too. I went to a DIY shop which had a small gardening section. What should be on a shelf but 20 of these plants, looking very healthy and unusual, full of large berries from white to red. They were a lot more expensive than I paid for mine but I had to pick a berry to try it (a white one). I wasn't very impressed. Quite a thick rubbery skin and a watery flesh. Although it was sweet, it was very much like chewing a pea pod, in texture and sweetness. I found myself spitting it out instead of enjoying it. Insipid is probably the best word.
If that berry was anything to go by, I'll stick with the Bell's Seedling variety, the berries are far superior. There are other varieties that may be worth trying though, the two I've heard of are 'Davis's Hybrids' which is another hermaphrodite variety and 'Mulberry Wine', a female plant with heavy cropping, pleasantly sweet berries.

I think I'll go back soon and sample a berry from each plant. The best tasting might find a new home if I don't get thrown out of the shop. :oops:

mootube
Full Member
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:27 pm

I just read that Pernyetta link again and realised how remarkably similar my account following the link was to it. Down to using the same wording.
I'd just like to say that the link had no influence at all on my paragraph and choice of words and I can safely say that I totally agree with what is written in the link. Spooky :lol:



Return to “All Other Fruit”