Fruit of the Fuchsia

It has just occurred to me that when I introduced my various plants, I only talked about the ones I bought from Edulis, but I neglected to mention any other plants.  I think it would be a bit too much to, and waaaay too boring to list every plant in the garden, but there is at least one that I should mention.

When I bought the house, the garden was quite well stocked with flowers.  Clearly the previous owner had been a keen flower gardener and had put a lot of time and effort into it.  Not being a flower person, I can't fully appreciate it, but they do look pretty.  My views on plants are that, ideally, they should do a bit more than look pretty.  For the time being I have plenty of other things to think about inside the house, so the garden is getting by with mostly just looking pretty.  Actually it is looking pretty neglected, but there are flowers.

I have mentioned before that I have a book called 'A Taste Of The Unexpected'.  In it there is information on a variety of unusual plants.  But I guess on some level I always knew that people in South America ate vegetables, so it is not all that unexpected.  What was really unexpected, was that fuchsias produce fruit.  Now I know that we've all got to breed, and fruit is how plants do it, so I shouldn't be surprised.  But the fact that it produces a fruit worth talking about, did catch me out.  I had always assumed that it was just another empty vessel.  All show and nothing more.

Well it turns out that the previous owner of my house had planted a rather fruity fuchsia and when it started producing, I had a nibble.  The most unexpected thing, though, was that the local wildlife let me.  For some reason the birds did not touch the berries.  By comparison I did not see a single black currant ripen in my garden.  I saw them nearly ripe and then they were gone.  The fuchsia berries hung on the bush the whole time just waiting for me.

The fuchsia berries were sweet and delicate in flavor, with a texture a bit like a grape and a taste that reminded me of pomegranate, although it didn't seem to remind anyone else.  I guess I will just have to wait until next summer to get another opinion.