All About Wineberries

SERC is acres and acres of woods filled with trees, vines, flowers, and bushes.
Some of these bushes have berries on them.
The most common berry on SERC's campus is the wineberry!

The wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) is not a type of berry I was familiar with until coming here. So upon being introduced to them, I researched them a bit. Turns out they are a type of raspberry native to Asia, that was introduced to Europe and North America as a decorative plant, but it spread from gardens and has since become naturalised in Europe and eastern North America. It is considered to be an invasive plant in the USA. 

After work, I went berry picking. I had been noticing on my runs that the berry bushes were beginning to ripen. And a few other interns had already gone berry picking and come back with Tupperware containers full of delicious berries. I went down a few roads and trails on a bike, there were lots of wineberries. I even found a few blackberries!

Blackberries are possibly my favourite berry. They are so delicious! I'm glad I found a few. Those few are now in my fridge waiting for the perfect time in the near future for me to eat them and savour the flavour!

The taste of a wineberry is like a raspberry, but has a tarter flavour. They can be eaten alone and taste good, but after eating I several I had a craving for something sweet to go with them. I had some vanilla yogurt in the fridge from my most recent grocery shop in town. Perfect! Freshly handpicked wineberries and vanilla yogurt! So good, I ate that whole bowl and could have had more if only I had more vanilla yogurt.

Berry picking is an activity I loved to take part in when I went across the pond to the UK each summer. I had not done it for several years until this afternoon. Going berry picking was very nostalgic and enjoyable!