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Someone told me once that european strawberries grew wild in forests and those were the only strawberries europeans knew. Small and very sweet but so fragile th
by CloudNetworking 8y ago
Someone told me once that european strawberries grew wild in forests and those were the only strawberries europeans knew. Small and very sweet but so fragile that you can't really pack and sell them.
Eventually some europeans stumbled upon american strawberries: Bigger, less fragile, less sweet, less tasty. They hybridised the two kinds and got today's garden strawberries.
Not sure if it's even close to what really happened, but thought I'd share :) as I found it interesting when I was told about "fregoline di bosco"
- riffraff 8y agowild strawberries are really really small (pea sized) and they can be found in southern europe (italy, croatia, I know for sure). They are incredibly tasty but I've never seen them in a shop, you just pick them on your own. Intensive agriculture is definitely used for strawberries in europe too, and it constitutes the vast majority of the market. They can generally (when in season, and fresh) be as tasty as what my father grew.
- improbable22 8y agoMy understanding is that it was just selective breeding -- strawberries might be the most recently domesticated plant, Europe 1200-ish? And like everything else, the more modern varieties are bigger & easier to farm, at the expense of taste.
- theandrewbailey 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry > The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America and Fragaria chiloensis, which was brought from Chile.