Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand July/August 2020 | Page 50

a brief
HISTORY OF
STRAW-
BERRIES
by Philip McIntosh
Relatively new to the scene,
the delicious strawberry
has become a key
ingredient for many tasty
dishes. But did you know
the strawberry isn’t really
a fruit, or even a berry?
Strawberry jam, strawberry shortcake,
strawberry sundae, strawberry syrup
(to put on the sundae), strawberries and
cream, strawberry pie, and just plain
strawberries — is there anyone who does
not just love a good strawberry? Well,
maybe, since some people are allergic
to strawberries. Other than that, the
strawberry is one of the most popular and
flavourful fruits in worldwide cultivation.
Compared to staples such as corn, beans,
and squash, agricultural production of
strawberries is of more recent origin.
Although mentioned in Roman times, the
edible fruit did not come into cultivation
in Europe until much later; around 1300 in
France. Before that, humans had collected
wild strawberries for a long time since
edible species are native to the British
Isles and northern Europe.
There are around 20 species in the genus
Frageria in the rose family (Rosaceae).
Most are uninteresting from a food
standpoint with poor taste or diminutive
fruit, but a few are sought after as edibles.
The common commercially available
strawberry is the hybrid variety known as
Frageria x ananassa. How exactly did this
hybrid come about?
Hybrids are a cross between closely
related species. Sometimes they produce
fertile offspring (viable seeds present);
often not (but there are ways around this as
with seedless watermelons). The modern
strawberry, Frageria x ananassa, has a
more complicated origin than the two-part
name suggests. The earliest cultivated
strawberries were two woodland species,
Frageria vesca and F. moschata, grown in
France and other parts of Europe. In the
17th century a wild variety with superior
taste, F. virginiana, was imported to
Europe from North America. The final
addition to the gene pool came from
Chile, in the form of F. chiloensis. Through
traditional crossing methods, these plants
eventually produced what was called
Frageria annanassa, which was a pretty
decent strawberry that could reliably be
grown from seed. But, we’re not at the end
of the story yet. A further combination of
F. anannasa, F. chiloensis, and
F. virgiania, led to what we would
recognise as the modern strawberry.
So, fruit contain seeds, right? You have
probably noticed that the strawberry’s
seeds are located on the outside of the red
fleshy part, and that is rather unusual.
Unusual enough that the strawberry
is not technically a fruit; it’s not even a
berry. Strawberries, like raspberries and
blackberries, produce aggregate fruit,
meaning there are many little fused
segments, resulting from the fertilisation
of more than one ovary in a single
flower. The “seeds” on the outside of the
fleshy receptacle are the true fruit of the
strawberry, called achenes. Each achene
contains a single seed.
In Australia, strawberry production is
concentrated in the Sunshine Coast area
of Queensland, the Yarra Valley and
Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, with
other production areas in Wannaroo,
Bullsbrook, and Albany in Western
Australia. About 500 growers produce
$250 million worth of strawberries annually.
The popularity of strawberries has
been on the rise in recent years and
they often come first or near the top
in favourite fruit surveys. A single
strawberry is relatively small and, of
course, is mostly water, so you have
to eat a number of them to get their
nutritional benefit. This usually isn’t a
problem since they are so sweet and
delicious. If one looks closely at several
nutrition facts labels for strawberries,
you’ll see that the amounts of vitamins
and minerals is low but varies widely
depending on how the serving size is
defined. A 150-gram serving is high in
vitamin C (greater than 100 percent of the
Australian daily value) and fibre, with a
bit of iron. The sugar content is relatively
low at about seven grams. Strawberries
are definitely a low fat, zero cholesterol
food containing small amounts of other
vitamins and minerals as well. Fresh or
frozen, as an ingredient, or eaten just as
they are, it’s hard to go wrong with the
noble strawberry.
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Maximum Yield