Welcome!! Working Toward Organic Certification Member of DOFFA Delaware Organic Food and Farming Association Welcome to fraises des Bois online. This is what we consider THE definitive site on alpine strawberries. We have to show off this picture taken by David Karp. It is a mix of yellow varieties. Photo Courtesy of © David Karp An index or home page is supposed to be a summary of a website. It is becoming more and more difficult to summarize what we do. First and foremost, I am a collector of Fragaria vesca varieties and have been doing that for nearly 20 years. Second, I am a researcher. I am endlessly curious about this strawberry. About what makes varieties different. Why are these berries not more widely cultivated here in the U.S.? These an many more questions give me ample reason to get up each morning and do it all again. All of this has lead to the seed business. We sell Fragaria vesca seeds world-wide and year-round. Some seeds are purchased from seed houses world-wide. For rare varieties not otherwise available, we isolate plants of that variety and collect seeds from them. We believe that we offer the most comprehensive list of strawberry seeds available anywhere in the world ... and the list is growing - so to speak. The seed business lead us to the plant business. We now grow about a half dozen non-runnering varieties commercially and sell them by variety name. We sell to the whole continental U.S. and have shipped to Hawaii and Alaska. To our knowledge, there is no one else in the world growing Fragaria vesca from seed commercially and selling them by variety. Of course the big payoff for being in the seed and plant business is growing the plants and producing the fruit. After all, this is the reason we do all the other things. The fruit is the ultimate reward. It's aroma is distintive. The taste is not easy to describe. Many expect them to taste tart and sweet at the same time like garden strawberries are supposed to taste. They are not like garden strawberries the one recent customer called styrofoam strawberries that are found in the supermarkets. Yes, alpine strawberries are strawberries, but not like anything you've ever tasted. The three aspects of who we are is the tip of the iceberg of what we do. We conduct research, collect seeds and grow plants for fruit. We also have started collecting varieties of musk strawberries which are detailed at www.muskstrawberries.com. We are involved with organic production of strawberries (though not yet fully certified) and research involving that aspect of production. And, we are already shipping fruit via the U.S. mail having shipped to New York and California sucessfully, something many didn't think was possible. We invite you to visit often. As with any enterprise, things change. We hope you will enjoy your visit and learn a little along the way about fraises des bois. Recently several sites have been added to our family of strawberry websites. They are: Alpine Strawberries (mirror site) Wood Strawberries (nothing to view yet!) Musk Strawberries (limited content added so far!) Hautbois Strawberries (nothing to view yet!) Hautboy Strawberries (nothing to view yet!) Yellow Strawberries (nothing to view yet!) White Strawberries (nothing to view yet!) And our most recent domain aquisition: HeirloomStrawberries.com An added note: Here's an interesting article titled: Red Alert: Wild Strawberries May Reduce Cancer Risk We Are Now Able to Take Credit Card Payments