These Backward Strawberries Have White Flesh and Red Seeds

Fruits from other countries are weird, bro. Some smell like sweaty socks and road kill. Others resemble spiky sea urchins ready to prick you to death. To add to the eyebrow-raising cornucopia, we’d like to present these “backward”-colored strawberries that look as if they’ve had their life force sucked out and stored inside their seeds. But only in the prettiest way, of course.

They’re called pineberries and despite their uniquely pallid appearance, they’re actually supposed to look like that. Grown in Holland, they’re a crossbreed between the North American Fragaria virgiana strawberry (which are red) and the South American Fragaria chiloensis strawberry (which are . . . also red). We’re sure it makes sense somehow. (Update: apparently all South American strawberries were originally white — who knew?)

As their name would suggest, pineberries also taste and smell kind of like strawberries and pineapples, but are notoriously scarce due to their short shelf life of 8 – 10 days. So no, you probably won’t be trading your super-sized red and juicys for their quarter-sized albino cousins anytime soon, but hey, at least they’re cool to look at, right?

Pineberries are currently available in pints from Melissa’s Produce.

H/T + Picthx Melissa’s