Strawberries A Short History

Strawberry is a red colored small juicy fruit used in desserts and eaten directly

. It is one of the favorite fruit around the world. It is low in calories, contains no fat and are rich in vitamins B6, vitamin C fiber, potassium and folic acid.

Strawberries are grown in Europe, Asia and America. Varieties have also be successfully grown in Australasia and Africa. Varieties have been bred to increase their size and improve their taste.

In Roman times, strawberries were known by their Latin name Fragra which meant fragrance. The word strawberry is derived from old English words steaw and berige. It is believed that the word straw came in use because of the straw like runners growing from the plant.

Strawberries were not considered an important crop and children form London and other towns often picked the fruits themselves which they used to sell in the market shouting straws of berries to get attention. Many uneducated children mispronounced their call as strawberries.

Pliny the Elder also known as Gaius Plinius Secundus mentioned strawberries as one of the native fruits of Italy. The fruit was not very popular but Pliny stated that they were taken by Roman settlers and traders to other parts of the empire.

During the time of Yellow Emperor who ruled China in the 26th century BC, his physicians used leaves of strawberry plant as a medicine to detoxify the body and help in reducing aging effects. Historians and Naturalists are not sure when humans first ate strawberries for the first time.

St Hildegard of Bingen was a medieval seer and visionary. He wrote an important book on natural healing, many consulted her and it was because of her that strawberries went out of favor. On seeing a snake in a garden among the strawberries, St Hildegard declared that strawberries were too easily contaminated by undesirable animals and poisonous for human body as mucus would fill the lungs resulting in eventual death.

The native people of North America in Massachusetts would hunt or scavenge what was available, strawberries which were called by them as berries of heart were eaten as a favored dessert. Settlers who came to native people traded items like blankets and guns for food. This was not acceptable for them and being lucky, strawberries were amongst the fruits offered quickly becoming a firm favorite that would be requested time and again.

The North American strawberry after getting cross bred with the traditional European varieties was becoming popular on the social scene by the middle of the 1700s. It was treated not only as a fruit but also as an ingredient of small desserts. Strawberry preserves were also reinvented that became the forerunner of jams and jelly of today.

Charles Linnaeus, a Swedish doctor of the 1700s prescribed a diet of only strawberries believing that rheumatic gout could be cured if strawberries were eaten daily. Modern medicine suggests that strawberry is nothing more than a tasty fruit.

In the late 20th century, beauty products which are flavored with strawberry have become popular. It has led to a considerable increase in the cultivation of strawberries with many products like moisturizers, facial cleansers, soaps and shampoos. This is in direct comparison with the number used for desserts.

by: Tauqeer Hassan

POST COMMENT

History Of Alaska A Short History Of Hawaii Short History Of Hong Kong The Generate $19,115 Per Month!.. No Technical Knowledge Or Experience Required.! How to make a choice for a company of article submission for SEO? This History Of Scanners A Potted History Of Fibreglass Make a Like Page on Facebook Ways for Facebook Growth and Success A Brief History Of Payment Processing Systems Page Flipping Ebook from PDF Arm healing non-mainstream ULV notebook go? The Globe Theatre – History