Love of Strawberries
I admit it. I am a strawberry fanatic. I now live in the Pacific Northwest of Canada (in a beautiful suburb of Vancouver). When we moved here from Ontario I could not believe that the strawberries here are so delicious. We had always sought out the farm markets for the sweet berries grown all around the Toronto area. So we were astonished to find the extremely large berries here are so good. Prior to moving we spent some time house hunting and in the kitchens we would see large bowls of strawberries. I have to confess we would turn up our noses about these berries and declare them overgrown with no taste. How wrong were we!
Everyone has their favorite way to consume strawberries. Some people sprinkle them with sugar (in my opinion overkill), some like strawberry shortcake, some like them with ice cream, and some just like them plain. The latter is my favorite way to enjoy the sweet taste of the berries.
I guess most folks eat strawberries just because they taste great, but maybe they don’t know how much nutrition is packed into each little berry. For instance, eight strawberries have more vitamin C than an orange, and only 50 calories per serving, with no cholesterol or saturated fats. Tasting is believing.
- A 12-ounce container of strawberries has only 97 calories.
- The average person eats 3.1 pounds of fresh berries a year.
- There are 200 seeds on a strawberry.
- Strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on a strawberry.
- Strawberries are the only fruit with the seeds on the outside.
- British Royalty loved strawberries. King Henry VIII’s daughter Princess Mary, loved strawberries so much she would be presented with a basket of fresh berries when she visited the court.
- Iroquois Indians grew strawberries as one of their most important crops. They used berries to season meat, make soup, and used the leaves for tea.
- The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the goddess of love, because of its heart shape and red color.
- In Provincial France, strawberries were regarded as an aphrodisiac. Newlyweds traditionally were served a soup of thinned sour cream, strawberries and powdered sugar.
- The second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn (1507-36), had a strawberry-shaped birthmark on her neck. Unfortunately, some claimed this proved she was a witch.
- Medieval stonemasons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals, symbolizing perfection and righteousness.
- Ever eaten a double strawberry? Legend holds that if you break it in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will soon fall in love with each other.
- Sacred to the Goddess of Love and the Virgin Mary, strawberries boast a long, dramatic history. “Doubtless God could have made a better berry,” wrote William Butler, “but doubtless God never did.”
Enjoy life! Have a strawberry.