# irish strawberries



## jg grant (Nov 22, 2007)

I have been in the hospitality trade almost continuously for six decades or more. Moving to a new area and home I came across an unknown fruit on a tree in the front garden. I phoned the previous owner and was told it was an Irish strawberry tree. Yeah right. But a visit to google confirmed it was as she had said. Has anyone else ever heard of an Irish strawberry? Think I might try to make a crumble with it or a mousse. Strawberry it is not.


----------



## beedeesea (Feb 28, 2006)

Never heard of anyone eating the fruit, JG. See quote from Tree Council of Ireland's description of Arbutus unedo:

"The fruit itsef is edible, but as the Latin name unedo – ‘eat only once’ – implies, it is not very palatable."

Brian


----------



## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Well. All types of fungi are edible. But it is only some that are edible more than once.

(When selecting a dish for elderly relatives, in particular, it is good to know which is which).


----------



## Rodney (Jul 21, 2010)

My wife is of Irish stock on her fathers side. Every time his wife (my mother-in-law) served him boiled potatoes he would say "oh good, Irish strawberries." it seems in the Northern States that is a fairly common term for potates.


----------



## John Rogers (May 11, 2004)

How about Chinese Gooseberries.


----------



## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

John Rogers said:


> How about Chinese Gooseberries.


Now known as kiwi fruit.

I assumed "Irish Strawberries" would be spuds in the same way as we used to call baked beans "Texas Strawberries".

John T


----------



## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Then there is Bombay Oysters


----------



## Fergie (Mar 3, 2007)

Varley, I am not sure whether the recently discovered Myrtle Rust, not previously in New Zealand, is classed as a fungus but I hope something eats it. It is a wind borne disease and the nearest infestation is Kermadec Islands. It threatens our native species of Pohutukawa varieties (also known as Christmas Tree) that grows around our entire coastline. Found so far in a single nursery at KeriKeri north of Whangarei. Threatens natives of that variety plus our lucrative Manuka honey industry, and feijoa fruit. Ministry of Primary Industries hell bent on eradicating it but no know effective spray. Flame thrower might work.


----------



## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

Yes it is a worry Fergie, it is a pretty concentrated outbreak and it is hard to imagine that it is isolated at one nursery in Kerikeri. It is also in Australia and one suggestion is that it has be Bourne on prevailing westerly winds.

Bob


----------



## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Varley said:


> Well. All types of fungi are edible. But it is only some that are edible more than once.
> 
> (When selecting a dish for elderly relatives, in particular, it is good to know which is which).


I can always put you on to these, Varley! (Eat)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-...-mushroom-outnumbering-edible-variety/8497638



Taff


----------



## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

So your mother is still with you Taff? For the moment anyway. She must be a wonderful age.

In a recent discussion with a medico (the nice American-accented one who told me that despite their very best efforts they could find no damage caused by alcohol and, as I was obviously enjoying life, I should not darken his doorstep again) we got onto the topic of his profession measuring its success in terms of the quantum of longevity rather than its quality. Mushrooms were mentioned by me as a method whereby the individual could improve on this, as were my Godmother's little white pills. "****nic you mean?" "I don't think so, isn't that rather painful too? I was thinking of hemlock". "Ah. And you can grow that in your garden."

I am still researching the hemlock. There is doubt on all fronts depending on what you read. Mainly a confirmation pf painlessness (even Socrates might not have ben drinking what he thought he was drinking), the varieties and how best to prepare it.


----------



## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Varley said:


> So your mother is still with you Taff? For the moment anyway. She must be a wonderful age.
> 
> In a recent discussion with a medico (the nice American-accented one who told me that despite their very best efforts they could find no damage caused by alcohol and, as I was obviously enjoying life, I should not darken his doorstep again) we got onto the topic of his profession measuring its success in terms of the quantum of longevity rather than its quality. Mushrooms were mentioned by me as a method whereby the individual could improve on this, as were my Godmother's little white pills. "****nic you mean?" "I don't think so, isn't that rather painful too? I was thinking of hemlock". "Ah. And you can grow that in your garden."
> 
> I am still researching the hemlock. There is doubt on all fronts depending on what you read. Mainly a confirmation pf painlessness (even Socrates might not have ben drinking what he thought he was drinking), the varieties and how best to prepare it.


Sounds like you have aspirations of knocking someone off, Varley? I am afraid I have that same feeling at the moment to my next door neighbour who constantly spreads out topless - and occasionally bottomless on the back lawn. I have been unable to stop my wife perving on him through the knot-hole in the timber fence - until now. Today, I cut the knot-hole out and used it as an arcehole for the rocking horse, I'm making for my grandkids!!(LOL)

Taff


----------



## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

BUMBUM.....

geoff


----------



## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

12.

Thinking rather of myself when the time comes. Taff.

If you've a mind to plough through it the following sums up my attitude to killing although, I apologise, very much off thread (A letter to our papers further to the abortion debate here):

Dear Sir,

I object to being labelled ‘pro-life’. I am rather ‘pro-death’ and certainly do not wish to find myself corralled in a group claiming evidence and proofs of their anti-killing stance are to be found in superstition. If we are to allow the undamaged and unthreatening to be killed in the womb as well as those clearly honourable cases of the damaged and life-threatening can we also consider less contentious killings too, please?

Painless death for those with no real appreciation of their existence nor chance of recovery should not be in the exclusive gift of the Late Lord Dawson and his like. Assisted suicide is consistently refused by our ‘democratic’ representatives despite a clear majority being in favour. There are many valid objections to euthanasia but there are also easily definable scenarios which could raise none. The enabling legislation required might be hedged about with precautions to protect the vulnerable but I cannot believe that drafting it would be too difficult. I am not promoting a mass slaughter of ailing wrinklies, arranged with the same enthusiastic abandon as practised by Harold Shipman, but some middle way. It is not as if the Brompton Cocktail or his Lordship’s last prescription for King George V are secret it is just that their illegality denies them to many patients enjoying care ‘lacking in the same finesse’. I would not like anyone at my deathbed or dementia-cell inhibited in this way. 

Public opinion has only recently ‘caught-up’ with Westminster’s undemocratic decision to abolish the death sentence. That argument seems to be a dead duck however is it not an absolute absurdity that one of the vilest murderers of all time is being kept alive against his will? Surely self-confessed offenders of this nature who want to do away with themselves should be allowed to, more humane too, I reckon.

(I wonder if sufficient parental candour and bravery exist to muster a panel of the undamaged who have survived the womb thanks to the protection of the law as it stands. Such a panel would clearly carry overwhelming weight when considering if the protection justice afforded them should now be withdrawn. Perhaps it is only such a panel that could carry any weight at all.)

Yours etc.

How we manage to fit your next door neighbour into the equation escapes me for the moment but I will think on.


----------



## Samsette (Sep 3, 2005)

Yes, and the bifurcation of the original subject into that of euthanasia is interesting. But, not to worry, you could be hit by a large truck, any day now.

As for Irish Strawberries; never heard of them, only CPR Strawberries as served on CPR dining cars in days gone by. We saw lots of them in wartime UK. Served with custard, too.


----------



## Hugh Wilson (Aug 18, 2005)

Commonly called the Killarney Strawberry Tree, botanical name Arbutus Unedo, Fruits best eaten 'bletted' or half-rotten and it apparently makes good jam.


----------

