Strawberry

Of the genus Fragaria, valued for its therapeutic properties in ancient Rome (it's an excellent source of vitamin C) and cultivated in Europe since the Middle Ages; a low plant bearing usually reddish, conical berries covered in tiny straw-color seeds, so named either for these specks or possibly because the plant's stumps are straw-like. Strawberries are not actually berries. Botanists refer to them as a false fruit, a pseudocarp or multiple fruit. The external "seeds" that dot the outside are technically the fruit, with miniature seeds inside, while the juicy red flesh is merely a receptacle for the "fruit."

The English have been eating strawberries and cream for centuries. This was the dish that inspired an Englishman to say, "Doubtless the Almighty could make a better berry - but He never did." Wild strawberries grow on many continents and in many climates. There are records of the alpine strawberries that the French called fraises des bois, meaning "strawberries from the woods", being cultivated as far back as the 15th century. In 1712, a French explorer/spy, Captain Amédé Frézier, while checking Spanish fortifications on the Chilean coast, stumbled on the wild beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, a variety as "large as walnuts", and brought it back to Europe. Early colonists in North America were amazed to see strawberries growing in abundance. In Maryland, one wrote, "Wee cannot sett down a foote but tred on strawberries." Roger Williams, the nonconformist minister who founded Rhode Island, said, "This strawberry was the wonder of all fruits growing naturally in these parts…where the Indians have planted, I have many times seen as many as would fill a good ship..." These strawberries, which the Indians crushed and mixed with meal to make bread, were named Fragaria virginia and were carried to Europe, where they were received enthusiastically. Later, some French growers found that Chilean strawberries bore fruit if planted next to Virginia strawberries and called the resulting crossbreed a pineapple strawberry, Fragaria ananassa.

In the 1830s, Charles Mason Hovey, an American horticulturist managed to successfully crossbreed several varieties of strawberries; it was the first fruit variety bred originally in the U.S. It was named after its "inventor" and quickly became popular nationally. Wilson was a new variety developed 30 years later and quickly won popularity. But strawberries stayed a locally produced, limited-season crop until after the Second World War. The big change came with the introduction of the University variety, developed by the University of California Agriculture Station in 1945. Experimentation continues to come up with hardier, more prolific strawberries that produce for a longer season and can be shipped long distances.

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