Fragaria Vesca
If you ask my children what their favorite fruit is, they will most likely answer: strawberries! The smell, alone, as you walk through a field of them is practically intoxicating. They, to me, are undoubtedly the sweetest "berries" of the season.
The wild strawberry is a perennial herbaceous plant in the rose family that grows naturally throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Evidence from archaeological excavations suggests that Fragaria vesca has been consumed by humans since the Stone Age.
You may know that the June full moon is called the Strawberry Moon.
June is when wild strawberries are ready for picking here in North America.
Long before the adoption of the 12 named months of the Gregorian calendar people lived by the seasons. Native Americans marked time by the appearance of full moons. Each full moon of the year had a name that marked a natural or community event.
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, some native people called the full moon in June the Strawberry Moon, because it coincides with the ripening of wild strawberries.
Native Americans used
strawberries extensively. The Mohawk name: noon tak tek hah kwa means "growing
where the ground is burned." Those that grow in meadows flourish after a brush
burnoff.
The Anishinaabemowin name: Odeiminidjibik, meaning "root of the heart berry-seeds" gives its name to the month of June, Odeiminigiizis, the strawberry-gathering moon.
Although these plants got their name due to their trailing stems that have the appearance of straw, in cultivating them, the straw serves as mulch around the developing plants and tiny buds.
Wild strawberries are a lot smaller than store bought berries, which are a hybrid of wild and European species of strawberry.
A Frenchman named Duchesne managed to cross breed the Chilean strawberry (fragaria chiloensis) with the Virginia strawberry (fragaria virginiana,) and that formed the basis for the large, red strawberries we see in supermarkets today (fragaria ananassa.)
Animals that eat strawberry leaves include eastern cottontail, white-tailed deer, nematodes, mites, slugs, stinkbugs, spittlebugs, weevils, and others. Animals that eat strawberry fruits include: crows, catbirds, sparrows, wild turkey, cedar waxwings, red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, mockingbirds, starlings, robins, cardinals, opossums, skunks, chipmunks, voles, mice and box turtles.
There’s quite a lot of competition out there!
Strawberries are believed to have many healing properties.
The roots, boiled for five minutes are used to treat canker sores and sties, and the berries themselves, can be made into a facial scrub. The tiny seeds act as an exfoliant. The leaves can be made into a tea which serves as a remedy for diarrhea. The fresh fruit removes discoloration of the teeth if the juice is allowed to remain on for about five minutes and the teeth are then cleansed with warm water, to which a pinch of bicarbonate of soda has been added. A cut strawberry rubbed over the face immediately after washing is said to whiten the skin and remove slight sunburn.
If you’re up to the challenge, certain gourmet markets will pay up to $25 a pound for freshly picked wild strawberries. It may take a while, so if you’re picking, be prepared to spend a few hours or all day.
After all, a good portion of the berries most likely won’t even make it to a basket. They just might be detoured right into your mouth.
A quick and easy recipe for strawberry jam:
In a heavy saucepan, combine 1 quart of berries with 4 cups of sugar. Stir over low heat until it “juices up” and then raise the heat to medium. When the mixture bubbles, time it for 15 minutes. When the liquid begins to set, slide the pot off the heat and allow berries to cool uncovered. Add the juice of ½ a lemon over top. When cool, stir lightly and fill sterile canning jars.
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