Strawberries are perennial herbs that increase in temperate zones all over the place the world. There are native strawberries in Europe, Central Asia, North The us, and South The us.
There are more than 600 varieties or cultivars (cultivated varieties) of strawberries. They come in quite a lot of sizes, colors, and flavors.
The strawberry flesh you devour is in fact a false fruit, a swollen fit for human consumption stalk. The tiny yellow dots or seeds that cover the berry’s ground are the plant’s exact fruits.
There are 3 primary classifications of strawberries: June-bearing strawberries (additionally known as summer time strawberries), everbearing strawberries, and alpine and wild strawberries.
There are plenty of cultivars of June-bearing and everbearing strawberries. What they all have in not unusual is that they are stylish hybrids—maximum often human-made creations.
Sorts of Strawberries
June-bearing strawberry varieties produce one crop in step with twelve months in late spring or early summer time, generally from mid-Would possibly by way of early-July inside the Northern Hemisphere on the other hand as early as April in California and Florida. Most June-bearing strawberries are plump and red, on the other hand their flavors vary. The fruit production of June-bearing summer time strawberries is prompted by way of the lengthening daylight hours of late spring and summer time.
Everbearing strawberry varieties get started setting fruit faster than June-bearing strawberries and produce strawberries frequently during the late spring, all summer time, and into the fall. Like June-bearing strawberries, everbearing strawberries are plump and red, on the other hand their flavors vary by way of variety. The fruit production of everbearing strawberries is maximum often unaffected by way of day duration, however, the peak of their harvest is early summer time with a second crop generally inside the early fall.
June-bearing and everbearing strawberry varieties are each and every so incessantly lumped together and referred to as “modern strawberries” and each and every so incessantly “garden strawberries” on account of they are hybrids. Each and every categories may also be traced once more to the cross-breeding of two important natural strawberry varieties: the Chilean strawberry (additionally known as the pine or beach strawberry) and the North American strawberry (additionally known as the scarlet or Virginia strawberry).
Transient History of Strawberries
Where strawberries originated. The North American strawberry used to be as soon as discovered by way of Europeans settling in Massachusetts in 1621. The North American strawberry used to be as soon as came upon emerging along a large number of {the japanese} coast of what used to be as soon as to turn into the USA of The us. It used to be as soon as additionally known as the Virginia strawberry. This strawberry which used to be as soon as well-known for its superb style and scarlet coloring used to be as soon as offered to Europe in 1624.
The Chilean strawberry used to be as soon as discovered inside the Andes mountain range of Chile by way of the French military explorer François Amédée Frézier in 1714. Frézier returned the Chilean strawberry to France. The Chilean strawberry used to be as soon as well-known for its large dimension.
Already emerging in Europe faster than the introduction of the North American strawberry and the Chilean strawberry were two native or wild Ecu strawberries: the alpine strawberry and the musk strawberry. Each and every the alpine and musk strawberries produced very small on the other hand very flavorful berries over a temporary season. The ones berries might be green, white, yellow, or red when completely ripe.
By the use of the seventeenth century alpine and musk strawberries made their way from the wild into Ecu gardens along side the royal gardens of the Louvre in Paris. There the musk strawberry were given right here to be known moreover as hautbois (from the French hautbois) or highest berry and remains to be valued at the present time for its style and fragrance.
Wild strawberries also are known as by way of the French determine fraises des Bois—strawberries from the woods. Many gourmets say at the present time that the flavor and scent of fraises des Bois surpass cultivated strawberries.
In Ecu gardens, the alpine and musk strawberries met the North American and Chilean strawberries, and, further importantly, the two western hemisphere strawberries met each and every other. In about 1750 in France, the Chilean strawberry from the west coast of South The us and the North American strawberry from the east coast of North The us were crossed. The result used to be as soon as the stylish strawberry—popularly known as the pineapple strawberry.
The pineapple strawberry is a large, deep red strawberry with a rich, sweet pineapple style.
Stylish strawberry cultivars. From the pineapple strawberry many stylish cultivars have since been complicated. There are plenty of named strawberry cultivars. Some of the well known is the Royal Sovereign which used to be as soon as complicated in 1892. The Royal Sovereign is considered by way of some to be the most efficient strawberry of all time. It is large, bluntly conical strawberry with a deep red color, and intense sweet style.
Some of the far-reaching development of the stylish strawberry began in 1945 when the Faculty of California started an ongoing strawberry hybridization program. The results—which continue–have been the introduction of larger, hardier, and further prolific strawberries that are merely shipped long distances. Now not all are the sweetest tasting.
The strawberries you to find on the subject of year-round in grocery stores at the present time are possibly stylish hybrids that may have no longer been locally grown.
Highest Strawberry Types
Well known June-bearing or summer time strawberry varieties include Allstar, Earliglow, Mother or father, Jewel, Lateglow, Robinson, Surecrop, Sparkle, and Winona.
The best known everbearing varieties include Citadel Laramie, Ogalla, Ozark Beauty, Quinault, Tristar, and Tribune.
Cultivated sorts of alpine and wild strawberries include Baron Solemacher, Pineapple Alpine Rugen, and Yellow Alpine.
Choosing and Storing Strawberries
Make a selection plump, sensible, shiny red berries, with fresh looking caps. Dull colored strawberries are generally overripe. Avoid strawberries that are relaxed or moldy.
All strawberries large and small may also be sweet and juicy; however, smaller berries may be further flavorful on account of they contain a lot much less water.
The smallest bump will bruise a strawberry and goal it to rot. One rotten strawberry can contaminate other berries in a container.
Store. Cover and refrigerate strawberries without washing for 1 or 2 days. Frivolously wrap the best possible of the container in plastic. Avoid leaving them at room temperature or inside the sun.
Do not crowd or press strawberries and remove any damaged berries as soon as conceivable.
Washed or overripe strawberries will keep longer if you happen to occur to add somewhat of sugar. Add lemon or apple juice to berries to reduce the loss of diet C after they’ve been scale back and exposed to air.
Whole, sliced, quartered or crushed strawberries may also be frozen.
Getting able and Serving Strawberries
Get able. Wash strawberries when you find yourself ready to use them. Rinse in cold water on the other hand steer clear of soaking strawberries. They will take in water and lose style. Do not hull strawberries until you are prepared to use them or they’ll lose juice.
Hull strawberries with a small paring knife scale back out the core in a cone shape.
Serve. Use fresh as a dessert fruit or serve with cream and just a bit sugar or in fruit salads, mousses, and ice cream. Use strawberries in pies, muffins, and soufflés. Process strawberries into jams, jellies, preserves, sweets, and fruit juices. Steep them in wine, champagne, brandy, or liqueur.
Style partners. Strawberries have a style affinity for almonds, balsamic vinegar, blackberries, blueberries, champagne, custards, heavy cream, kirsch, lemon, melon, sour cream, sugar, walnuts, and whipped cream.
Vitamin. Strawberries are an excellent provide of diet C and a very good provide of potassium and folic acid, diet B and magnesium.
The botanical determine for the Ecu wild strawberry is Fragaria vesca; the Chilean strawberry, F. chiloensis; the North American strawberry, F. virginiana; the musk strawberry, F. moschata; and the garden or pineapple strawberry, F.x ananassa.
The determine strawberry may be a corruption of the English word “strew.” The strawberry plant strews or scatters new crops when it sends out runners and the fruit is strewn among its leaves. As well, the yellow achenes or seeds of the strawberry plant are straw-colored.
The Latin determine for the strawberry Fragaria is derived from the Latin fraga or fragrance in regards to the fruit’s fragrance.
Moreover of interest:
Learn to Broaden Strawberries
Strawberry Types for Backyard Gardens
Strawberry Plant Starting Pointers
Starting Strawberry Plants from Runners
Emerging Strawberries in Sizzling Summer season Climates
Planting Strawberries
Strawberry: Kitchen Basics
