The Unbelievable History of Strawberries

doubtless god could have made a better berry but doubtless god never did that was what the 17th century writer william butler had to say about the strawberry as far back as the late middle ages strawberries have been held in high regard to the point of being associated with the divine what's more multiple different cultures each came to this same conclusion independently with over 9 million tons of strawberries being grown worldwide today this admiration clearly persists but what is the strawberry where did it come from and how did it attain this status well to be honest this fruit has quite a tail attached to it that goes back thousands of years ladies and gentlemen hello and welcome to fire of learning's food history series a series in which we discuss the surprising and amazing stories of the foods we eat every day thank you for joining us in this episode as we tell the story of the strawberry before we begin i'd like to thank joe cantu junior colin ricardo gabriel bn silva nadirbek sayev juan big degenerate and hayes for being our most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters listed here who helped to make these videos possible where do we begin with the strawberry from an origin point likely somewhere in north america strawberries had spread throughout the americas and into eurasia through natural means and developed into over 20 different species many thousands of years before they were cultivated by humans as a result many cultures throughout the americas and eurasia grew and consumed strawberries long before columbus albeit different kinds the strawberry was known to the ancient romans and possibly the ancient greeks romans such as epuleus ovid pliny and virgil spoke of the strawberry in their writing the romans called it fraga and spoke positively of it however those strawberries grew throughout many parts of the roman empire and were used by the romans for medicinal purposes as well as for food they were not of great agricultural importance indeed ancient references to strawberries are few and the references that do exist portray strawberries as predominantly wild fruits these were not the strawberries with which most of us are familiar today those would take time there were three different species of strawberries eaten in pre-modern europe those listed here the woodland strawberry fregaria vesca and the musk strawberry fregeria moscata in particular as you can see they're smaller and rounder than the strawberries we tend to eat today they're also tougher and less sweet after the roman authors strawberries were rarely discussed in writing for centuries likely throughout the early and high middle ages strawberries remained predominantly wild fruits still they clearly retained some importance throughout this time the very english word strawberry in fact seems to come from the anglo-saxons the european cultivation of strawberries seems to have begun in 13th or 14th century france written records begin to appear in the age of the hundred years war in 1368 the french king charles the wise ordered his gardener to plant no less than twelve hundred strawberry plants in the gardens of the louvre palace they also became popular in the nearby duchy of burgundy a favorite of duke john the fearless wife margaret the plants were grown ornamentally for their flowers as well as for their fruits strawberry cultivation became popular throughout europe in places like germany italy and england not long after it wasn't long before strawberries began to appear in contemporary art from these lands as well in the romance languages the word for strawberry came from the latin word fraga like the french word phrase most germanic languages came to call them something like at bera earthberry so why do we call them strawberries in english this again seems to go back to the anglo-saxons but the reason isn't clear there are several theories but according to george m darrow in his book the strawberry history breeding and physiology the most likely explanation has to do with how the berries strew away from the plant to find space to grow they were therefore originally strewn berries meanwhile on the other side of the atlantic other cultures had been contributing to the story of the strawberry all along of crucial importance to this story these cultures were about to meet native americans in both north and south america consumed and some even cultivated strawberries prior to european arrival in north america groups like the iroquois and cherokee ate them wild and held them in high regard the cherokee believed that strawberries were created to heal a divide between the first man and first woman some native groups would mix strawberries with cornmeal to make a kind of strawberry cornbread in modern chile the mapuche and huiliche cultivated strawberries still these were not the typical kind of strawberry that we eat today either however european exploration of the americas was bringing us closer when europeans discovered the strawberries of the americas they were quite impressed and the fruits remained popular in the colonies that were established there however throughout the 16th century the europeans who stayed in europe continued eating the varieties they had at home king henry viii of england for example was a known fan of strawberries as was much of the nobility at the time an unknown cook in the service of thomas woolsey the king's right-hand man is often credited with being the first to pair strawberries with cream strawberries are also mentioned several times in the works of shakespeare in 1593 the popularity of strawberries in england was described by thomas hill quote they be much eaten at all men's tables in the summertime with wine and sugar and they will grow in gardens until the bigness of the mulberry the strawberry requires small labor but by diligence of the gardener becometh so great that the same yield is fair and big berries as the berries of the bramble and the hedge end quote all right everyone it is time to absolutely shatter your reality we've been through it plenty of times before on this series peanuts are not nuts sweet potatoes aren't potatoes and indeed my good audience strawberries are not berries and technically they aren't fruit in the way you would expect either at least not botanically what is it then what we consider to be the fruit of the strawberry plant is called the enlarged receptacle of the flower this is what holds on to the actual fruit an actual strawberry fruit is what we would call a seed it's actually in a king and the seeds are inside them strawberries aren't berries because the flower has more than one ovary that makes them aggregate fruits however culinarily which is what matters to most people of course it does make sense to pair them with the actual berries like raspberries and blackberries no way those technically aren't berries either eggplants though those are real berries yeah let's um let's move on by the 17th century europeans were importing the strawberries from the americas back to europe one north american species in particular fragaria virginiana the virginia strawberry was a hardy species that seems to have reached europe by 1623 probably earlier though it would take time for europeans to become sufficiently interested in it in 1714 a french spy lieutenant colonel ahmed frazier traveled to spanish chile and brought back a species of strawberry that was growing there natively fregaria chilewensis the chilean strawberry or beech strawberry coincidentally his surname frasier which became frasier in english was derived from the french word for strawberry this chilean strawberry was not very hardy but was rather large and would doubtlessly be of interest to farmers back home but there was a problem at first the chilean plants frazier brought back were rarely producing fruit regardless of where they were planted when they did produce fruit the fruit was not the large fruit he had observed in chile by the way the plants could still reproduce by what are called runners which is how people still prefer to plant strawberries today eventually though breton and norman farmers realized the chile implant bore fruits more abundantly when planted around other species the 19 year old french botanist antoine nicolaudu kane was the first to identify exactly why this was the case in 1766 the chilean strawberry is a dioecious or unisexual plant meaning each plant produces flowers that have only one biological sex this is in contrast to certain other flowering plants even certain other strawberries which are meniscus or monoisis meaning an individual plant produces male and female flowers frasier did not know it but he had brought back only female plants from chile duquesne realized chilean strawberries produced the large fruits for which they are famous when they came into contact with male musk strawberries or virginia strawberries this was a major step in the story of the strawberry the accidental cross between the chilean strawberry and the virginia strawberry created a hybrid called the garden strawberry frogaria ananasa the garden strawberry is a strawberry with which we are the most familiar today for his efforts duquesne won the admiration and thanks of many including the french king louis xv once created the garden strawberry would continue to be bred by europeans namely the french english and dutch it seems the garden strawberry was brought to the united states in the 1770s these four countries in particular would produce many new varieties in the following centuries which would spread around the world strawberry production took off in the 19th and 20th centuries with the development of new varieties combined with industrial farming they became a more widely available favorite with the sweet flavor becoming commonly used in everything from ice cream to lipstick the first mention of the ancestor of strawberry shortcake by the way seems to come from columbus ohio and dates to june 1 1845 today the strawberry is more popular than ever and the varieties available are greater than ever as well the top three producers of garden strawberries today are china the united states and mexico with these three producing well over half of all strawberries grown worldwide so as a final important note about the strawberry i would say that um i do believe that is the ice cream truck i should uh probably finish this i still have to do the closing credits too um no no i gotta get one peanut where did you put my wallet peanut where did you put my wallet i gotta get a spongebob popsicle even though they always melt too fast of course he's already out there do not run in the trap oh my god dude you're gonna get hurt wait you

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 2,813,524

Keywords: Strawberry, Virginia, Fragaria, Chiloensis, Virginiana, Vesca

Id: mGPteoCKfWo

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2022