A new high-yield strawberry variety developed in the US has been named after Victorian author Charles Dickens, thanks to its prolific output.
Courtney Weber, associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences based atCornell Universityin New York, dubbed his new variety “Dickens”, after noting that the berry “yields like the dickens”.
Weber has tagged his previous varieties with the names of his favourite authors including L’Amour, Clancy, Herriot, Walker and Archer, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Weber says the June-bearing variety, first discovered in one of his breeding fields in 2002, is high-yielding and hardy, well adapted to New York’s cold winters.
“With New York-grown berries, because we don’t have to ship so far, we can handle a softer fruit. And people notice the softer, sweeter, juicier fruit. Maintaining that flavor is paramount to what we do in our breeding program,” Weber said.
Cornell’s berry breeding program is the oldest in the US and is the only one in the Northeast, with their berries being grown around the world.
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