Day 81: Strawberries

Strawberries are the epitome of that childlike mindset that if it's tasty, it can't possibly be good for you. Because strawberries are yummy, but people used to tell me that they weren't as healthy as, say, brussell sprouts. Based on my own research, in fact, strawberries have an exceptional amount of antioxidants. In any case, no one eats strawberries for antioxidants, nor should you because that takes away from the fun. I also hear about strawberries as an example of indulgence that contributes to global harm. Has anyone ever complained to you, in the context of a world of consumerism leading to excessive transportation and global warming externalities, that "as a society, we require things like strawberries in the wintertime". So a bad rep for these fruits. But point taken, strawberries in the wintertime aren't that tasty (I think that's the point of these anti-consumerism activists, right?)

Strawberries have been in season for a few weeks already, and the season is going to stretch maybe into mid July if we're lucky. For the rest of the year, we get them from places like California. They get picked early on, ripen in trucks, and then arrive in Ontario. The species are genetically selected for size, shininess and to withstand the harsh treck diagonally across the continent. But when they're in season, they picked at their prime, ripening on the bush and letting the sugars all blossom naturally. The best strawberries are the small ones, slightly darker in colour, not shiny, but fresh because that's where all the sugar comes from. The big fat shiny ones are watery in their juices, slightly sour, and one dimensional in flavour. They're about $5 per quart (about 20 strawberries) or sometimes $6 per quart for smaller strawberries, but for smaller ones, you get more because even though it's still a quart, you can fit more strawberries in them because they're smaller and they fill more of the empty spaces. And the smaller ones are sometimes better. I've seen these smaller ones called "field strawberries" here... wondering if they're actually a different variety?

You usually should wash them before eating them because of the pesticides, but eating a few unwashed won't kill you, unless you are a bug.

On Strawberries (from wikipedia)

The strawberry is, in technical terms, an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the "receptacle" that holds the ovaries. Each apparent "seed" (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it. In both culinary and botanical terms, the entire structure is considered a fruit.

The first garden strawberry was grown in France during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species were the common source for the fruit. Other names for wild strawberries include  Alpine Strawberry, Fraises des Bois, Wild Strawberry, and European Strawberry.