The Unbelievable History of Strawberries

In this video, we take a look at the unbelievable story behind one of the world's favorite fruits - The strawberry.

The following music performed by Kevin Macleod Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 [orig. by JS Bach]
Accralate
Heavy Heart
Yonder Hill and Dale
Eine Kleine NachtMusik

Sources and further reading

[1] Darrow, George M. "The Strawberry: History, Breeding, and Physiology." Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966.

[9] Geggel, Laura. "Why Are Bananas Berries, But Strawberries Aren't?" LiveScience, 12 Jan, 2017.

[10] Hancock, James & Sjulin, T.M. & Lobos, Gustavo. (2008). Strawberries. 10.1007/978-1-4020-6907-9-13.

[11] "Strawberry Shortcake." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

[12] "Strawberry." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

Picture Attributions

[Fireoflearning]

1. I'd like to reiterate - The strawberry is not a berry only by scientific definition. In common use, which came first and is more important, it certainly is a berry, and it is not incorrect to call it one.

2. In the opinions of many, it seems I was wrong! Wild strawberries are considered much more flavorful than their modern domesticated counterparts.

[latedecember]

When I was a child my mother gave me my own flower bed. IN it I planted strawberry plants out of one of those six pack starters from the local feed store. The berries weren't large like supermarket strawberries but a smaller variety. Every year there were more plants until the flower bed was completely full of strawberry plants. That was 40 years ago and that bed still has strawberry plants growing in it, providing a sweet treat to birds and humans alike.

[oldras]

I would definitely say that wild ”woodland strawberries” are far better tasting than cultivated strawberries. Just as with raspberries the wild ones are smaller but so much more flavorful.

[bluebowser]

I once crossbred a strawberry that had hideously shaped fruit, but a brilliant taste. I propagated it through runners as the seeds were always infertile. It was a truly remarkable cultivar that I grew for many years, up until we had a very cold winter which reached -30. The whole population of plants didn't survive and i've never tasted a better large strawberry since.

[Darren]

As a child some 50 years ago, and while exploring a hilly pasture, I came across a lone strawberry plant growing on the banks of a creek, and on it was a single small strawberry, so of course I popped it into my mouth and can still remember the intense flavor. Unfortunately, the strawberries sold in stores today are the size of golf balls but have practically no flavor. It was as if the flavor of 100 of today's golf ball sized strawberries had been crammed into that one small strawberry.

[UncleBildo]

In my childhood, Dad was big on native edibles. Our camping trips involved us learning the edibles around us and we'd gather salad for dinner. Among the faves was the wild strawberry. Little, puckery, strong flavored, but so awesome. Watercress, wild onions, various greens, berries and whatever else ended up as salad. Wasn't a bad way to be raised.

[mglamarmd]

My wife is from Sweden. When we'd go for walks in the forests there, she'd snap off a piece of straw, and slide a wild strawberry onto it to save for later. She'd have 10" of berries on a single straw! Her father taught her thus. Many old Swedes confirmed learning it from their parents. She thinks this is what Vikings did when they came to the UK and that is how the "straw-berry" got its name.

[maxwiz]

I had always believed that that strawberry got it's English name from the way it was grown. The plants are grown in rows and straw is banked up either side of the row so that the fruit is kept off the dirt and away from slugs. It gives the appearance of fruit growing from the straw.

Interesting to hear an alternative etymology.

[beeer]

I remember when I was a kid I was served "wild strawberries" and they were tiny compared to normal ones you get at the store. The odd thing is, you said the original varieties weren't as flavorful, but I swear these things, while small, packed soooo much more flavor. I wish I knew where to get whatever it was I was served.

[peachmelba]

When I was a little kid, my family moved into a house whose entire back yard was carpeted with wild strawberries, and also had a raspberry briar. It was like having a candy store right outside. They seemed to be nearly endless in quantity, and were quite delicious.
Further, not far from the house, about 10 minutes walk, were huge patches of low bush blueberries. I hated picking them, but they were so so good.

[treeoflife]

Hey! I'm from Finland and we have wild forest strawberries here, and I'd argue they're far sweeter than cultivated ones, you can smell them from a mile away, man I love wild strawbs 🥲 I also wonder if they're called strawberries because of the way people pick(/ed) them. While foraging we put all other berries in buckets and baskets except wild strawberries because they get mushed so easily, and thread them on... well, a straw. That's what I was taught to do as a kid by grandma and it's been like that for basically forever AFAIK. 😊

[truxton]

When I was little in Norway many years ago we used to pick wild strawberries, take a straw, picked many small berries and thread them onto straws = strawberries. I think that might be how they got their name as the wild strawberries were much smaller than the farmed strawberries so putting them on a straw was a good way of collecting them.

[TesserId]

A friend once gave me what she claimed was a wild strawberry from her back yard. It was so packed with the most wonderful strawberry flavor that it was like candy. I instantly developed a deep hatred of all commercial strawberry.

[hamslicemcdooogle]

Eggplant is berries and tomato is berries so eggplant parmesan is just berries and cream

[SaraMKay]

in Switzerland they are called "Heubeeren" like "hay-berries" and I always thought straw or hay in the name is because while growing, they should not touch the wet soil otherwise they spoil and so to cultivate, the fields are covered in straw or hay to provide a dry environment for the berries to rest on and ripe.

[TheMixCurator]

My grandfather used to grow strawberries, but what we used to love to do at the end of summer was go to the forest and pick lingonberries. They made the best jam and the best "saft" (squash or cordial like). Also super high in anti-toxicants and all the good stuff. Its like a super strawberry but easier to grow and get large yields 👍

[JacubWhite]

Food history is so interesting. It's incredible how much history there is behind something as simple as the strawberry.

[erikjohnson]

I'd love to see a multi-part piece on mushrooms throughout history.

[shermanhofacker]

When I was a kid we grew three varieties, blakemore, aroma, and everbearing. The first two were grown for sale the everbearing were in the home garden. The blakemore ripened earlier, were smaller, and not as sweet. The aroma were quite large and very sweet and flavorful. The Ozarks had a bunch of strawberry growers because they don't need extremely fertile soil and can be grown in our rocky fields.

[geckoo]

Here in Mexico, one of the most important regions for straw berries is Irapuato in guanajuato, my family from the side of my father lives in an area near and some of my relatives work on the strawberry fields.