February 19, 2020 • 37 mins
As strawberries have gotten sturdier, they’ve lost some of the fragrant qualities they were originally prized for. Anney and Lauren explore the (hopefully not tasteless) history and science of the strawberry.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, I'm welcome to Savor protection of I Heart radio
and stuff Media. I'm an Aries and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.
And today we're talking about strawberries, which is a little
Valentine's Day tangential. Sure as a little late, but sure
not too late. Yeah, you can be in that spirit
whenever you want, exactly. Yeah, I prefer for it not
(00:30):
to actually be on Valentine's Day. See. And if you
hit the sales right, this is perfect time. This is
prime cheap candy season that you, I guess if you're me,
still feel guilty about because it's made with slave labor. Sorry, No,
that's good to know. Yeah, to be aware. And this
(00:52):
is going to be a Lauren's Killjoy Corner episode later on.
There's lots of other delightful stuff. Yes, don't worry too much. Yeah,
a regular amount of work, normal baseline worry. Yes, I
think that's appropriate. That's appropriate. Well, I'll start with a
pleasant memory of mine. Okay, I'll never forget the first
time I had fresh strawberries and whipped cream, which is like,
(01:14):
it just seems so obvious, but I never had it.
I think I was nine, eight or nine. My grandparents
were staying at the Ritz Carlton in Midtown Atlantic, because yes,
they had some money, and they had a dessert buffet
in their room, in their rooms, in their room. Dang dang. Indeed,
and my grandfather made me a bowl of strawberries and
(01:37):
cream and it was revelatory. And I'm a delighted by
this delightful memory. But be like, I was, like, I've
never seen whipped cream plus strawberries called strawberries and cream before.
I've always seen it as sweetened cream like non whipped cream. Uh,
(01:58):
sometimes flavored with vanilla and stuffed plus strawberries, right, But
a quick Google pulls up recipes both ways, so I
don't know either way delicious. Yeah, I've never had it
with the sweetened cream. I'm a whipped cream gal. I guess.
I guess I both are nice. Well, I believe it.
I believe it. I used to pick strawberries when we
(02:18):
lived in Statesboro, Georgia. Um, and one of my favorite
things was when my mom used to juice fresh strawberries
and oranges. The best, the best. Yeah. My favorite smoothie
flavor at my hometown mall was strawberry straight, just straight strawberry, Okay, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
I went strawberry picking a few times up in Ohio
when I was a little kid, but yeah, I haven't
(02:40):
done it since i've been down here. Yeah, I think
that might be a little kid activity. Yeah, I mean,
I don't know. I'm still pretty into being out in
a field that smells like fresh strawberries. And I do
grow strawberries at home. Oh do you? Yeah? Yeah, I've
got a little plant that's very, very tenacious, despite despite
our best efforts to kill it, it's still hanging on.
It's it's still do sing strawberries after like three years. O.
(03:02):
Good for you, strawberry plant, I know, right right, I have.
Strawberries are forever associated with Iron Man too, now for me?
Oh right, because there's that scene where where Tony is
trying to apologize to Pepper and he brings her that
flat of strawberries and she's allergic to strawberry and she's like,
what's the one thing I'm allergic to? And he's holding
(03:23):
this heck and flat of strawberries. It's it's real cute,
Yes it is. They recovered from it eventually. I do
have a friend who won't eat strawberries because of the seeds.
She doesn't like eating seeds is a thing. Yeah, yeah,
I have some some friends who just like a pomegranate
for the same reason. So interesting. Well, before we get
(03:45):
in direct question, I just want to put in here.
I found a five hundred and fifteen page book, I guess,
on the strawberry. It's called the Strawberry. That's clear, straight
in point. I appreciated that. In my prime takeaway from
it was that it took folks a long time to
figure out how strawberries work, and that breeds strawberries have
(04:06):
fantastic names. Really, that's the takeaway from five fifteen pages. Yeah,
I'm glad I didn't read it, but I'm happy that
you did. It was very, very in depth about cross
breeding strawberries. Okay, but okay, let's get to our questions. Yes, strawberries,
(04:27):
what are they? Well, strawberries are small fruits from a
number of species in the genus Frigaria. The cultivated variety
that we're usually eating from supermarkets is a f on
a nasa, and they're usually a red, sort of round
to oblong heart or kind of tongue shaped fruit with
a yellow or tan or black seeds dotting the outer skin.
(04:49):
Um though varieties the bare yellow fruit do exist as well.
And yeah, they grow on herbaceous meaning like soft and
not woody plants that lay close to the ground and
can propagate by sending off shoots called runners. And they
will dang propagate your whole yard if you do not
contain them. It's true, you will have strawberries pop up
in places that you never expected. Strawberries to be another
(05:10):
horror movie death by strawberry. Uh. They grow pretty a
little little white or yellow flowers with yellow centers that
that then develop out into these greenish white berries that
eventually ripen into that red or yellow color um and
have like a bright sweet flavors and just a touch
of tartness. But I said berries, you did. That's kind
(05:33):
of a lie. I know, a strawberry is not botanically speaking,
a berry. What so what's a berry? Good question? Well,
berry is a type of fruit that's a fleshy throughout
and does not contain anything um stiff and structure inside
other than the seeds. So like peaches and olives are
(05:56):
not berries because they contain seeds. Check, but those seeds
have like a hard outer shell. Okay, um and apples
are not berries because they have those those papery bits
that are holding the seeds in the core. Yeah, and
berries can have skins. Everything from grapes to eggplants, to tomatoes,
to bananas to pineapples are botanical berries. None of those
(06:20):
have berries in the name. I no, So we have
to return to our original question, what's a strawberry? The red,
fleshy part of a strawberry is technically not the fruit
of the plant. It's the receptacle for the plants fruits
and seeds. The crunchy bits on the outside that your
friend doesn't like. Uh, those are the fruits, oh my god.
(06:42):
And they each contain a seed. The receptacle feeds the
fruits and seeds, like if you cut open a strawberry, um,
you can see the tiny white threads or veins that
run out from the center to each fruit and seed. Um.
And yeah, it entices the receptacle entices animals to come
eat the fruits and seeds and disperse them. And the
fruits are hard to help prevent the seeds from being
(07:04):
digested during the process. This is my mind is blown,
I know, right, man. Um. This type of fruit, like
small hard ones that protect seeds, is called an aching,
which leads to all sorts of good puns. Oh yeah, um,
and thanks by the way to Botanist in the Kitchen,
which is a great blog for their excellent breakdown of
(07:25):
how all of that works. And strawberries are used in
all kinds of things. Oh yeah, smoothies, juices, pies, cakes, wines,
cheese cakes, Yeah, salad, soups, muffins, jams, candies, popsicles, ice cream.
Over half of American children picked the strawberry as their
favorite fruit, and all kinds of strawberry festivals popular when
(07:45):
it comes to fragrances too, and things like the bombs, candles, perfumes.
The name derives from the practice of putting down straw
around the plants to to keep weeds down and keep
the berries up off the ground. Um Latin language group names,
Oh gosh, can you help me with the With the
French one is that phrase phrase, yeah, phrase or fressa um,
(08:06):
stuff like that. They all derived from the berries fragrance. Yes,
and speaking of what we perceive as being the scent
of strawberries is about a dozen to a couple dozen compounds,
but mostly one called HDMF or strawberry fur an known
or by brand name used in the food and scent
industries fu annial for annial. Yes, that's short o um
(08:32):
and uh. Also speaking of scent, the reason that those
huge strawberries that you buy in the store can taste
sort of like nothing um is that, over the past
century or so, as they've been selectively bred to increased
size and firmness, which by firmness I really mean like
durability for travel after picking um and overall crop yield,
(08:53):
the sugar and flavor content have decreased. It's not always
a trade off, but it can be. Yeah, we were
talking about we were talking about how there's nothing quite
as sad or unsurprisingly like surprisingly sad as a strawberry. Yeah, right,
especially when they look so big and gorgeous and beautiful
and you're like, oh man, and then it's just like
(09:13):
this is this might as well be juicy cardboard, right right,
because you're always well, at least I would dig through
and find the most colorful and I think this one
it not always I always look for smaller ones at
the store. Really, is that the key? I feel like
it is? Okay, I'll try I'll try that method next time.
But in the meantime, let's talk about nutrition. Uh yeah,
(09:38):
with a punch of dietary fiber and just a boatload
of micronutrients um, including over one of your daily recommended
value of vitamin C in just eight berries. Yeah. Strawberries
are a great addition to your diet um though they
are best paired with something with protein and fat in it, because,
especially with their sugar content, they will help fill you up,
but they will not keep you going on their own right,
(10:00):
as we are kind of finding out, because I ate
mostly strawberries this morning as I was finishing my research
and I'm a little wacky today. Guys, It's an experiment
and it's all for the show. There you go. Plus,
that's just what happened to be for breakfast this morning,
our work breakfast. Yes, so not my fault, no, but
(10:22):
all in the name of science. Science. And we do
have some numbers for you. As of Americans spent some
fifty two million dollars on strawberries around Valentine's Day. I know,
right WHOA how many of them were chocolate covered? Oh god,
we may never know. Oversure, the strawberry industry is worth
(10:44):
an annual one point for billion dollars by weight. Strawberries
are the fifth most consumed fresh fruit. The United States
Department of Agriculture reports that per capital consumption of strawberries
fresh and frozen at about four point eight five pounds.
Most of the American yield comes from California. They produced
an annual billion pounds a year. Yeah, like of American
(11:07):
strawberries are grown in California, and a third of strawberries
in the world are from there. They are a big
name in the strawberry world, as is this one drist call. Uh.
They are extremely protective of their breeds of strawberries, and
they've been involved in at least one high profiled lawsuit
a leging competitors have stolen their proprietary varieties, and their
(11:28):
breeders are known as joy makers. Joy makers. That is
some interesting corporate spin. I love it. We love some
good corporate spinning here. Strawberries and cream is a popular
Wimbledon tradition where almost thousand are sold. I didn't know this, Yeah,
me neither, But I guess I've never been uh super
(11:50):
up on my Wimbledon traditional. But yeah, that accounts for
like thirty tons of strawberries in a two week period.
My brain says, no, move on, move on. Because of
the shape and color of strawberries, they have long been
associated with love. It was the symbol of the goddess
(12:12):
of love. Venus and century author Dr William Butler What's wrote,
doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless
God never did. H hag. Yeah, strawberry. That is. That
is some high praise for strawberry. It is. And actually
there's a lot of really good strawberry quotes out there,
if that's something that interests you. We went with that one,
(12:36):
but there are plenty, and there's also plenty of history,
oh gosh, there is. But first we're going to take
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So okay.
(12:58):
Wild strawberries have been around for oh long long time,
native throughout Europe and North America. However, early records of
them are sparse since they weren't really a big part
of agriculture back then. Since ancient times, people have been
eating wild strawberries, but they didn't really seek them out
since these versions would have been bitter and tough. Writings
(13:19):
from ancient Rome mentioned strawberries in the context of their
medicinal use. They believed it worked for all kinds of things,
kidney stones to melancholy and other depressive illnesses. Roman poets
Virgil and Ovid mentioned strawberries in their works in first
century c E. But they mentioned them more in the
context of a decoration than a food. Plenty mentioned it also,
(13:40):
but only briefly. Yes, they were mentioned in a Ish
Japanese book, and they were mentioned there as a sweet treat.
In nineteen sixte King Charles the third of West Francia
united a citizen who presented him with a plate of
delicious strawberries as phrase the French word for strawberry, and
(14:03):
he presented him with a coat of arms with two
diagonal lines with strawberry leaves and three quadrants. A century later,
the King of France asked the Strawberry clan, the Strawberry
Clan to go to Scotland to subdue a rebel named Macbeth.
The name was anglicized to Frasier. And this comes back
in a minute. Yes it does. During medieval times and Europe,
(14:25):
strawberries often symbolize righteousness and perfection. Because of that, Stonemason's
carved strawberries and altars and around the tops of pillars
and cathedrals and churches. Strawberries appeared in art and miniatures
across Europe. People ate them too, sometimes boiled with spices
and served on bread. Gime intrigued by this was all
during the time of illumination, when artists started adopting a
(14:48):
more natural, liberated style. Monks were a big part of this,
using this style in their prayer books. This was happening
simultaneously with a desire to glorify the virgin. Several painting
has depict this, whether it's Joseph holding out a strawberry
to Jesus to convince him to walk to him, or
a group of angels gathering strawberries for the Virgin Mary
and baby Jesus. The strawberry is becoming more widely known
(15:11):
at this time and was admired for its beauty. By
the way, this style of illumination, if you've ever seen
the classic Valentine's Day movie Midsummer, very similar to some
of the art that they used. The three partitions that
is now my favorite Valentine's you know, and they showed
it at the plaza on Valentine's Day. They did. Anyway,
(15:37):
the ultimate breakup film. The three partition leave of the
strawberry was believed to represent the Holy Trinity, the strawberry
itself a drop of christ blood, and the five flower
pedals the five wounds of Christ. In six the royal
gardens of King Charles the Fifth had twelve thousand strawberry plants.
In fourteen eighty five, one of the first botanical illustrations
(15:57):
of a strawberry appeared in her Berries. They were still
largely viewed as ornamental, though Europeans were cultivating strawberries by
the hundred, particularly in France, where it was seen as
an afro dasy. Newlyweds frequently were served strawberry sep which
I've had and it is delicious, really yeah. It's just
(16:18):
kind of like a chilled puree of strawberries and I
think cream. That does sound delicious, really nice. YEA Horonomous
Bosh painted strawberries into his famous or perhaps infamous Garden
of Earthly Delights trip Tick around the year fifteen hundred.
The large scale cultivation of European strawberries was taking place
in Paris by the sixteen hundreds. This was around the
(16:40):
time it started to become equally food and ornamental. Cardinal
Thomas Wassley, a member of King Henry They's court, gets
the credit for coming up with the combo of strawberries
and cream in fifteen o nine, although it was almost
definitely a chief that came up with it. Probably I
can't imagine he spent that much time in his kitchen.
I I doubt it. I doubt it. He was integral
(17:02):
in the construction of Hampton Court and Tutor, England, an
establishment that fed over six people twice a day, and
this dessert was an easy one to prepare for a
large amount of people. Five points of good husbandry out
of fifty seven suggested that strawberry cultivation was an appropriate
quote employment for women. Wife into the garden and set
(17:24):
me a plot with strawberry roots. The best to be
got such growing abroad among thorns in the wood, well
chosen and picked to prove excellent good. Okay, sure, I
like strawberries too. I feel like I just set a
spell and I'm going to have some kind of weird
strawberry experience later. Uh. Only only you can make your
(17:47):
dreams possible. You're right, You're right. I need to take
control over my own destiny. The Fifook Gardeners a Labyrinth
came with this tidbit about strawberries. They be much eaten
at all men's tables in the summertime, with wine and sugar,
(18:09):
and they will grow in gardens until the bigness of
the mulberry. The strawberry requires small labor, but by diligence
of the gardener becometh so great that the same yielded
fair and big berries as the berries of the bremble
in the hedge, the bremble in the head, the bramble
in the hedge. In seventeen o nine, Louis the fourteenth
Doctor apparently forbade him from eating strawberries for reasons unknown um,
(18:32):
though the book History of Food suggests that it may
have been because he was known to over indulge in
anything that he liked, and that strawberries were his favorite fruit,
especially in wine. Um because apparently the fashion at the
time dictated that strawberries and cream was a lady's dish
and have that. Um. He also apparently held a poetry
(18:54):
competition about strawberries. That's kind of endearing. Yeah. Um, there's
a couple of poems in French if you want to
attempt to read them, yeah, or if we can get
casey on the case in here in casey on the
case party listeners wants to send us some kind of
slam poetry reading about strawberries that would be amazing. I
(19:15):
would be amazing. In sevente or seventeen fourteen differs depending
on the source. A French mathematician slash map maker, also
sometimes subscribed as a spy okay named am a day
Francois Frasier returned from Chile with the Chilean strawberry descended
from this guy was descended from the aforementioned Fraser's strawberry clan. Okay, Yes,
(19:39):
this strawberry. The Chilean strawberry was desired for its size,
but the European climate did not suit the Chilean strawberry
until it was crossed with the Virginia strawberry, a new
world variety that arrived in Europe in the sixteen hundreds,
resulting in our modern garden strawberry in seventeen fifty ish
in Brittany, France. Yeah, like, no one did this on purpose.
(20:00):
It was just this wonderful accident or or at least
like an accident that led to the sturdier, larger berries
that we know today um and which at the time
were able to be shipped out to Paris and London. Yes,
the book I mentioned at the top, the strawberry five pages.
I mean, it was just so many experiments of crossing
(20:20):
strawberries with different strawbres and they didn't know why it
was happening or what was working. Like they couldn't figure
out like what specifically about this plant versus this plant
led to this other plant, and the terminology was described
in ways that was very confusing because it was like
masculine strawberry versus feminine strawberry. Oh yeah, there's a whole
thing with the sex of strawberries. It's actually super fascinating.
(20:41):
I didn't make notes about it because it's also kind
of dull, yeah, and complicated somehow both at the same time.
Well there, okay, quick sidebar. There are masculine ones. There
are male strawberries and female strawberries, and there are some
hermaphrodite strawberries, and the way that they read therefore can
(21:01):
be a bunch of different ways. They are also um
like the most recent plant known to have developed male
and female plants. Most plants originally were hermaphroditic, but yeah,
I don't know the strawberry. The strawberry. This is why
I didn't. It was very complicated in that book. But
(21:26):
they were. They were into it again. That was one
of my main takeaways. They were determined to figure this out.
They're really into it all right. Back to some history.
In seventeen sixty four, seventeen year old Antoine Nicola Duchesna
gifted a pot of Chilean strawberries to King Louis the fifteenth.
The berries were painted for the Royal Botanic Library, and
Duchesna was tasked with raising more of the strawberries at
(21:48):
the Verst Sailles kitchen garden. He went on to write
a treatise on strawberries, like seventeen and I think it
took him several years, but he was very young. When
it came out. He was like seen as the expert
on a strawberry for a while. Cool, so good for
that guy. Yeah, legend goes that prominent member of Napoleon's court,
Madame Tutien baits and fresh strawberry juice. We don't know
(22:11):
how frequently, but one back goldverd two pounds of strawberries,
two pounds of gosh, would you just be sticky. I
feel like you would just be sticky and then all
the flies and bees would come at you. Did she
think this through. Maybe it is just a legend. Maybe
that's just one of those stories people said. Yeah. When
(22:35):
the first European galist arrived in North America, they found
that wild strawberries were abundant. Native Americans used them in
their cooking. Strawberry bread was probably present at the earliest
American feast. This meant that strawberries weren't really cultivated until
the nineteenth century, when a fancy new dessert had a
meteoric rise. Strawberries and cream yep, New York became the
(22:58):
center of strawberry py action and shipping. After the advent
of refrigerated railroad cars. They were a popular street food
in big cities, the strawberries and cream street food. One
Cherokee legend describes an argument between a man and a
woman and she runs from the man. The man implore
the creator to sew her down so you could catch
up with her and apologize. Here, so the Creator threw
(23:20):
down berries to slow down, but she didn't stop until
she encountered strawberries. She filled a basket with them and
returned to the man ready to Yeah. By the time
the guy caught up, she was like, oh man, we've
got strawberries. And he was like I like those two. Yeah,
strawberries bring people together. I don't know if i'd use them,
you know your Miles Mayberry in arguments. But maybe Tony
(23:43):
Stark knows about this legend and that's why he brings pepper.
Maybe he knew what he was doing all along. When
we don't give Tony Stark and he credited for its
Cherokee mythology, yes, so we don't. It's true, it's true.
We need to reconsider this. U. S. Strawberry production was
common by eight and that's around when large scale production
(24:07):
began in Europe. To throughout the eighteen hundreds, more strawberries
were produced in the U S And Europe, partially because
the Industrial Revolution and its speedy trains and ships allowed
um these still relatively delicate berries to make it into
cities from far flung farms, thus calling for more production. Yes,
in horticulturalist Charles Hovey debuted the Hovey cultivar. In eighteen fifty,
(24:32):
we had the first strawberry festival. Strawberries and cream were
a feature at the very first Wimbledon held in eighteen
seventies seven. I almost went on a very big Wimbledon
rabbit hole, but I had to pull it together. Good
for you, Yes, but if anyone's ever been and knows
about the food traditions there, oh absolutely let us know.
Oh gosh, we'll have to go. Well, we all have
(24:54):
to have a Derby episode, Wimbledon episode, all the things.
I can play some tennis. I can't kept beating Wimbledon,
but I played in its back in my day, so
I would appreciate it, I suppose, is what I'm saying. Cool. Yeah, cool.
During World War Two what would become drift goals when
a group of growers hired some breeders and get their
journey to dominate, the berry market sort of got its
(25:15):
first its foundation, I guess. Prior to that, Um and
Japanese in tournament, Japanese immigrants dominated the US strawberry market.
While modern strawberries were introduced in Japan in the eighteen forties,
first as decorations, it wasn't until the spread of greenhouses
during and after World War Two that strawberries became more
affordable and widespread up there. Also, after World War two
(25:37):
um in the nineteen fifties, so okay. For about thirty years,
farmers in California had been struggling with the soil born
fungus UM that would cause strawberry crops to wilt. It's
frequently called wilt um. Researchers in the fifties finally came
upon a combination of compounds that could combat this. Unfortunately,
that combination was too toxic. Compounds clara pigrine, which is
(26:00):
a tear gas that was used in World War One,
and methyl bromide, which is a pesticide that was started
to be used in World War Two. But this combo
was so effective at killing wilt fung gui that it
became basically the industry standard to fumigate your strawberry soil
with the combination. Like apparently, banks in California would not
lend money to farmers who were not fumigating um. It
(26:23):
allowed yields to increase um and growers to focus on
creating new varieties. Right and in n DRIs coll debut
their first proprietary strawberry Z five A, and the industry
does still use these compounds even though they're a danger
to the environment and farm workers and local communities who
(26:43):
get exposed to them. Um. There's an excellent episode of
the podcast gastropod all about it. UM. The episode is
called Running on Fumes Strawberries Dirty Secret. It came out
just last year, in twenty nineteen. UM. Go check that
out for lots more short story, there are alternatives being investigated. UM.
For example, lots of farmers in Europe used greenhouses and
(27:04):
either hydroponics or other media than soil. But unfortunately those
methods are kind of expensive, and so the industry has
built it up to such a point that it's it
would cost more than it's worth to a lot of
farmers to switch over a little bit more on that
in a second. In the meanwhile, Uh, strawberry fields. So
(27:24):
I totally forgot about this when I was doing the outline.
I just kind of randomly thought about that and just
put Strawberry Fields Forever question Mark and Lauren answered my question. Yeah, okay.
So um. The Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever came out
in nine UM, and it is partially in reference to
(27:45):
this Salvation Army location in Liverpool, England, which is a
Victorian era house and the surrounding grounds which were called
Strawberry Field. Um. So John Lennon spent time there as
a kid and eventually wrote this song. Um. It was
a children's home from the nineteen thirties through almost the
end of the century and has been reopened as a
(28:06):
historic site and education center for local kids with with
differing learning abilities. There's also a part of a Central
Park called Strawberry Fields that was dedicated to Lenin in
the year after his death in his home near Central Park. Yes,
and as you can imagine, quite a big tourist draw,
but usually someone playing music. And yeah, very pretty over there. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:28):
there's a there's a nice little stone mosaic with imagine
in the middle. Yeah. Um. Or researchers mapped the first
genome of a strawberry in eleven um. The the wood strawberry,
which is F veska um. The common commercial variety didn't
get its genome mapped all the way until it's more complicated.
(28:48):
It has eight sets of chromosomes, meaning it has four
direct parents. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. It's it's it's
a lot to contend with, like genetically speaking, um, but yeah,
this genome map might lead to new developments in breeding
varieties that have more of the traits that we want,
like flavor and resistance to pests like wilt um, and
(29:10):
fewer that we don't want, which in turn might finally
help get those toxic compounds out of the industry. Um
like like it's it's bad, y'all. Like like one of
the downsides of of bethel bromide is that it contributes
to ozone depletion. UM, But it's considered so crucial to
large scale strawberry production that the industry, the strawberry industry
(29:31):
has successfully lobbied for its continued use for thirty years. Um.
Albeit it's been scaled back to just in nurseries as
but it's still like hoof gosh. There's also a whole
book about that called Wilted Pathogens, Chemicals and the Fragile
Future of the Strawberry Industry. Um. If you're looking for
(29:55):
uh interesting if slightly depressing, read something to uplement Giljoy corner. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's I think it's hopeful in the end, because
it's saying that that with better farming practices and more
awareness of all of these compounds that we started using
in the nineteen hundreds that aren't great, that are that
(30:17):
are good for very specific things, but are not great
for other reasons. Um that by just being more aware
of stuff like that, and by changing um consumer and
industry expectations about the cost of food, that we can
all make good change in the world. And we all
want to do that. We do and and I and
(30:37):
I wanted to end on a slightly nicer note than
that one, So so tell us a nice story, Eddie. Okay, Okay. So,
as I was doing the research for this episode, there
was one variety of strawberry that kept coming up. It
was kind of like a white whale almost like people
mentioned it. I didn't really know what they were talking about,
but I found a whole article that in sixteen, David
Carp at the Smithsonian reported on the journey of horticulture
(31:00):
risk Harry N. Schwartz to try and breed the favorite
strawberry of Jane Austen, Okay, that has long been out
of the rotation. And it's called the musk strawberry, yes,
because of its its musky scent. Oh yeah, it has
a very strong smell. It was described as spicy and
floral and a mix of honey and wine and cheese. Yeah.
(31:23):
It was a popular cultivar in Europe from the sixteenth
to the nineteenth centuries, and Jane Austen loved it, loved it,
but they were soft and didn't transport well, so they
fell out of fashion in favor of heartier cultivars. They
were still around, they were just very very rare. Fdr
fell in love with them after trying some of the
child while traveling in Germany, so much so he asked
(31:46):
the Secretary of Agriculture to dabble into musk varieties of
strawberries backing strawberries. Yeah, it's a it was a really
interesting reed. We're giving you a lot of little sources
you can go check out, but this. But it was
cool because the person who's trying to bring these back
just described him trying, like all of these strawberries. Nope, nope,
(32:12):
that's what I understand. A lot of strawberry researchers wind
up doing just eating like a lot of strawberries and
being like huh no, not quite yeah, like maybe this one, yeah,
I don't know, I can't. I can't imagine that. You know,
our very first episode we did on sparkling wine, the
our friend the Brewer, he said something that stayed with
me to this day was that he was waiting until
(32:34):
his palette was refined enough to be able to appreciate
some really expensive I think from the Titanic bottle of
something that he's just saving. He's like, yeah, my palt's
not developed enough to taste it yet, so I'm just
gonna wait. I still think about that. Yeah, But I mean,
I guess if every day you're trying strawberries, you learned
to pick out on the certain things. Yeah, I guess.
(32:58):
Very impressive, very depressive. That's about what we have to
say on the strawberry. We do have a little bit
more for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
(33:20):
listen beautiful. Except for my elbow hit the mike. I apologized.
You know I had to do the choreography, Laura wrote,
You don't know how excited I was to day to
open my podcast app to see the title waxing poetic
(33:41):
about sticky Rice in my podcast feed. As someone with
a taie mother who was born and lived for a
few years in Gentian Laos, I have tried my whole
life to express my love and admiration for gluteness rice,
or as we always called it growing up, sticky rice.
We ate it with almost every meal. Much like how
other cultures use bread to mop up sauces, we use
balls of sticky rice to scoop up larb topped with
(34:01):
spicy sete and swirl and papaya salad. But no one
I grew up with had ever heard of it, and
even nowadays it is rare to find on Asian menus.
Once a friend of mine asked how to make sticky
rice like they serve with Chinese takeout. I was a guest. First,
I informed him that the rice from Chinese takeout was
not sticky ice, and then proceeded to inform him that
(34:24):
to make rice that doesn't cook into individual little loose greens,
I would be impossible to lift with a pair of chopsticks.
He had to start with a rice that does not
come from a box and has nothing to do with
the San Francisco treat. My two girls grew up loving
sticky rice too, which became a bit awkward when I
took my youngest to her pediatrician and the doctor asked
her what her favorite foods were. In addition to gluteness rice,
(34:46):
my daughter loves steamed art of chokes, so her three
year old reply was stinky rice and leaves. She didn't
know they were called artichokes. I could only wonder what
my doc thought I fed my child on the daily
stinky rice and leaves. I mean it sounds of the thing. Yeah,
(35:08):
that's not the worst, not the worst. Three year olds
are good at the worst, Yes they are. Um Antonio wrote,
I'm the longtime listener who wrote in last year about
the pineapple mention in the favorite Oh thank you. Yeah. Well,
I was catching up on episodes that came out around
the holidays, and the Pineapple Redux episode was like an
(35:29):
awesome related New Year's surprise. I visited Hawaii quite a
bit in the past few years, so I really enjoyed
the episodes related to your trip, especially the visit to
a pineapple farm. I just got back from Kawaii, where
I toward the Kauaie sugar Loaf pineapple farm. The Quai
sugar loaf is a white pineapple that's super sweet and
fleshy that you can even eat the core. Unfortunately, the
(35:49):
pineapples are in short supply and the farm had a
lot of back orders. Each person was only able to
bring back a baby pineapple you picked, so we made
sure to power wash them twice to an sure that
they could pass agricultural inspections to bring back to the mainland.
We gave one to our pineapple obsessed friend who is
attempting to plant them in our considerably cooler Northern California climate.
(36:10):
This friend, on a previous trip to Hawaii, vowed to
eat a pineapple a day. That scheme came in handy
when we went to the beach and my husband and
I both got stung by jellyfish. We had no remedies
nearby and didn't want to pee on the wound. We
realized we needed something acidic to neutralize the sting. Our
friend had packed some pineapple chunks as snacks first family,
so we just started rubbing our limbs with pineapple chunks,
(36:31):
which did the job just fine. As for the sugarloaf pineapple,
they're only sold at farmers markets and stores on Kauai
and at a few specialty grocery stores when in supply.
On Wahu and Maui. One can order and get them
shipped to the mainland. But better yet, you can all
do another saver Field trip to the islands you missed
and visit the farm yourselves. A pineapple a day keeps
(36:52):
the stingers away. Well, there you go, doctor recommend it.
I suppose we have to return. I guess we gotta go. Oh.
I never would have thought to put pineapple on a
jellyfish sting, but now my mind is expanded. There you go.
Oh gosh. We learned such wonderful things from you all listeners.
(37:12):
We really do, and we would love to continue to
do so. So thanks to both of them for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is Hello at savor pod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
(37:33):
you can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always for super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope the lots more
good things are coming your way.
Hello, I'm welcome to Savor protection of I Heart radio
and stuff Media. I'm an Aries and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum.
And today we're talking about strawberries, which is a little
Valentine's Day tangential. Sure as a little late, but sure
not too late. Yeah, you can be in that spirit
whenever you want, exactly. Yeah, I prefer for it not
(00:30):
to actually be on Valentine's Day. See. And if you
hit the sales right, this is perfect time. This is
prime cheap candy season that you, I guess if you're me,
still feel guilty about because it's made with slave labor. Sorry, No,
that's good to know. Yeah, to be aware. And this
(00:52):
is going to be a Lauren's Killjoy Corner episode later on.
There's lots of other delightful stuff. Yes, don't worry too much. Yeah,
a regular amount of work, normal baseline worry. Yes, I
think that's appropriate. That's appropriate. Well, I'll start with a
pleasant memory of mine. Okay, I'll never forget the first
time I had fresh strawberries and whipped cream, which is like,
(01:14):
it just seems so obvious, but I never had it.
I think I was nine, eight or nine. My grandparents
were staying at the Ritz Carlton in Midtown Atlantic, because yes,
they had some money, and they had a dessert buffet
in their room, in their rooms, in their room. Dang dang. Indeed,
and my grandfather made me a bowl of strawberries and
(01:37):
cream and it was revelatory. And I'm a delighted by
this delightful memory. But be like, I was, like, I've
never seen whipped cream plus strawberries called strawberries and cream before.
I've always seen it as sweetened cream like non whipped cream. Uh,
(01:58):
sometimes flavored with vanilla and stuffed plus strawberries, right, But
a quick Google pulls up recipes both ways, so I
don't know either way delicious. Yeah, I've never had it
with the sweetened cream. I'm a whipped cream gal. I guess.
I guess I both are nice. Well, I believe it.
I believe it. I used to pick strawberries when we
(02:18):
lived in Statesboro, Georgia. Um, and one of my favorite
things was when my mom used to juice fresh strawberries
and oranges. The best, the best. Yeah. My favorite smoothie
flavor at my hometown mall was strawberry straight, just straight strawberry, Okay, yeah, yeah, Yeah.
I went strawberry picking a few times up in Ohio
when I was a little kid, but yeah, I haven't
(02:40):
done it since i've been down here. Yeah, I think
that might be a little kid activity. Yeah, I mean,
I don't know. I'm still pretty into being out in
a field that smells like fresh strawberries. And I do
grow strawberries at home. Oh do you? Yeah? Yeah, I've
got a little plant that's very, very tenacious, despite despite
our best efforts to kill it, it's still hanging on.
It's it's still do sing strawberries after like three years. O.
(03:02):
Good for you, strawberry plant, I know, right right, I have.
Strawberries are forever associated with Iron Man too, now for me?
Oh right, because there's that scene where where Tony is
trying to apologize to Pepper and he brings her that
flat of strawberries and she's allergic to strawberry and she's like,
what's the one thing I'm allergic to? And he's holding
(03:23):
this heck and flat of strawberries. It's it's real cute,
Yes it is. They recovered from it eventually. I do
have a friend who won't eat strawberries because of the seeds.
She doesn't like eating seeds is a thing. Yeah, yeah,
I have some some friends who just like a pomegranate
for the same reason. So interesting. Well, before we get
(03:45):
in direct question, I just want to put in here.
I found a five hundred and fifteen page book, I guess,
on the strawberry. It's called the Strawberry. That's clear, straight
in point. I appreciated that. In my prime takeaway from
it was that it took folks a long time to
figure out how strawberries work, and that breeds strawberries have
(04:06):
fantastic names. Really, that's the takeaway from five fifteen pages. Yeah,
I'm glad I didn't read it, but I'm happy that
you did. It was very, very in depth about cross
breeding strawberries. Okay, but okay, let's get to our questions. Yes, strawberries,
(04:27):
what are they? Well, strawberries are small fruits from a
number of species in the genus Frigaria. The cultivated variety
that we're usually eating from supermarkets is a f on
a nasa, and they're usually a red, sort of round
to oblong heart or kind of tongue shaped fruit with
a yellow or tan or black seeds dotting the outer skin.
(04:49):
Um though varieties the bare yellow fruit do exist as well.
And yeah, they grow on herbaceous meaning like soft and
not woody plants that lay close to the ground and
can propagate by sending off shoots called runners. And they
will dang propagate your whole yard if you do not
contain them. It's true, you will have strawberries pop up
in places that you never expected. Strawberries to be another
(05:10):
horror movie death by strawberry. Uh. They grow pretty a
little little white or yellow flowers with yellow centers that
that then develop out into these greenish white berries that
eventually ripen into that red or yellow color um and
have like a bright sweet flavors and just a touch
of tartness. But I said berries, you did. That's kind
(05:33):
of a lie. I know, a strawberry is not botanically speaking,
a berry. What so what's a berry? Good question? Well,
berry is a type of fruit that's a fleshy throughout
and does not contain anything um stiff and structure inside
other than the seeds. So like peaches and olives are
(05:56):
not berries because they contain seeds. Check, but those seeds
have like a hard outer shell. Okay, um and apples
are not berries because they have those those papery bits
that are holding the seeds in the core. Yeah, and
berries can have skins. Everything from grapes to eggplants, to tomatoes,
to bananas to pineapples are botanical berries. None of those
(06:20):
have berries in the name. I no, So we have
to return to our original question, what's a strawberry? The red,
fleshy part of a strawberry is technically not the fruit
of the plant. It's the receptacle for the plants fruits
and seeds. The crunchy bits on the outside that your
friend doesn't like. Uh, those are the fruits, oh my god.
(06:42):
And they each contain a seed. The receptacle feeds the
fruits and seeds, like if you cut open a strawberry, um,
you can see the tiny white threads or veins that
run out from the center to each fruit and seed. Um.
And yeah, it entices the receptacle entices animals to come
eat the fruits and seeds and disperse them. And the
fruits are hard to help prevent the seeds from being
(07:04):
digested during the process. This is my mind is blown,
I know, right, man. Um. This type of fruit, like
small hard ones that protect seeds, is called an aching,
which leads to all sorts of good puns. Oh yeah, um,
and thanks by the way to Botanist in the Kitchen,
which is a great blog for their excellent breakdown of
(07:25):
how all of that works. And strawberries are used in
all kinds of things. Oh yeah, smoothies, juices, pies, cakes, wines,
cheese cakes, Yeah, salad, soups, muffins, jams, candies, popsicles, ice cream.
Over half of American children picked the strawberry as their
favorite fruit, and all kinds of strawberry festivals popular when
(07:45):
it comes to fragrances too, and things like the bombs, candles, perfumes.
The name derives from the practice of putting down straw
around the plants to to keep weeds down and keep
the berries up off the ground. Um Latin language group names,
Oh gosh, can you help me with the With the
French one is that phrase phrase, yeah, phrase or fressa um,
(08:06):
stuff like that. They all derived from the berries fragrance. Yes,
and speaking of what we perceive as being the scent
of strawberries is about a dozen to a couple dozen compounds,
but mostly one called HDMF or strawberry fur an known
or by brand name used in the food and scent
industries fu annial for annial. Yes, that's short o um
(08:32):
and uh. Also speaking of scent, the reason that those
huge strawberries that you buy in the store can taste
sort of like nothing um is that, over the past
century or so, as they've been selectively bred to increased
size and firmness, which by firmness I really mean like
durability for travel after picking um and overall crop yield,
(08:53):
the sugar and flavor content have decreased. It's not always
a trade off, but it can be. Yeah, we were
talking about we were talking about how there's nothing quite
as sad or unsurprisingly like surprisingly sad as a strawberry. Yeah, right,
especially when they look so big and gorgeous and beautiful
and you're like, oh man, and then it's just like
(09:13):
this is this might as well be juicy cardboard, right right,
because you're always well, at least I would dig through
and find the most colorful and I think this one
it not always I always look for smaller ones at
the store. Really, is that the key? I feel like
it is? Okay, I'll try I'll try that method next time.
But in the meantime, let's talk about nutrition. Uh yeah,
(09:38):
with a punch of dietary fiber and just a boatload
of micronutrients um, including over one of your daily recommended
value of vitamin C in just eight berries. Yeah. Strawberries
are a great addition to your diet um though they
are best paired with something with protein and fat in it, because,
especially with their sugar content, they will help fill you up,
but they will not keep you going on their own right,
(10:00):
as we are kind of finding out, because I ate
mostly strawberries this morning as I was finishing my research
and I'm a little wacky today. Guys, It's an experiment
and it's all for the show. There you go. Plus,
that's just what happened to be for breakfast this morning,
our work breakfast. Yes, so not my fault, no, but
(10:22):
all in the name of science. Science. And we do
have some numbers for you. As of Americans spent some
fifty two million dollars on strawberries around Valentine's Day. I know,
right WHOA how many of them were chocolate covered? Oh god,
we may never know. Oversure, the strawberry industry is worth
(10:44):
an annual one point for billion dollars by weight. Strawberries
are the fifth most consumed fresh fruit. The United States
Department of Agriculture reports that per capital consumption of strawberries
fresh and frozen at about four point eight five pounds.
Most of the American yield comes from California. They produced
an annual billion pounds a year. Yeah, like of American
(11:07):
strawberries are grown in California, and a third of strawberries
in the world are from there. They are a big
name in the strawberry world, as is this one drist call. Uh.
They are extremely protective of their breeds of strawberries, and
they've been involved in at least one high profiled lawsuit
a leging competitors have stolen their proprietary varieties, and their
(11:28):
breeders are known as joy makers. Joy makers. That is
some interesting corporate spin. I love it. We love some
good corporate spinning here. Strawberries and cream is a popular
Wimbledon tradition where almost thousand are sold. I didn't know this, Yeah,
me neither, But I guess I've never been uh super
(11:50):
up on my Wimbledon traditional. But yeah, that accounts for
like thirty tons of strawberries in a two week period.
My brain says, no, move on, move on. Because of
the shape and color of strawberries, they have long been
associated with love. It was the symbol of the goddess
(12:12):
of love. Venus and century author Dr William Butler What's wrote,
doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless
God never did. H hag. Yeah, strawberry. That is. That
is some high praise for strawberry. It is. And actually
there's a lot of really good strawberry quotes out there,
if that's something that interests you. We went with that one,
(12:36):
but there are plenty, and there's also plenty of history,
oh gosh, there is. But first we're going to take
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So okay.
(12:58):
Wild strawberries have been around for oh long long time,
native throughout Europe and North America. However, early records of
them are sparse since they weren't really a big part
of agriculture back then. Since ancient times, people have been
eating wild strawberries, but they didn't really seek them out
since these versions would have been bitter and tough. Writings
(13:19):
from ancient Rome mentioned strawberries in the context of their
medicinal use. They believed it worked for all kinds of things,
kidney stones to melancholy and other depressive illnesses. Roman poets
Virgil and Ovid mentioned strawberries in their works in first
century c E. But they mentioned them more in the
context of a decoration than a food. Plenty mentioned it also,
(13:40):
but only briefly. Yes, they were mentioned in a Ish
Japanese book, and they were mentioned there as a sweet treat.
In nineteen sixte King Charles the third of West Francia
united a citizen who presented him with a plate of
delicious strawberries as phrase the French word for strawberry, and
(14:03):
he presented him with a coat of arms with two
diagonal lines with strawberry leaves and three quadrants. A century later,
the King of France asked the Strawberry clan, the Strawberry
Clan to go to Scotland to subdue a rebel named Macbeth.
The name was anglicized to Frasier. And this comes back
in a minute. Yes it does. During medieval times and Europe,
(14:25):
strawberries often symbolize righteousness and perfection. Because of that, Stonemason's
carved strawberries and altars and around the tops of pillars
and cathedrals and churches. Strawberries appeared in art and miniatures
across Europe. People ate them too, sometimes boiled with spices
and served on bread. Gime intrigued by this was all
during the time of illumination, when artists started adopting a
(14:48):
more natural, liberated style. Monks were a big part of this,
using this style in their prayer books. This was happening
simultaneously with a desire to glorify the virgin. Several painting
has depict this, whether it's Joseph holding out a strawberry
to Jesus to convince him to walk to him, or
a group of angels gathering strawberries for the Virgin Mary
and baby Jesus. The strawberry is becoming more widely known
(15:11):
at this time and was admired for its beauty. By
the way, this style of illumination, if you've ever seen
the classic Valentine's Day movie Midsummer, very similar to some
of the art that they used. The three partitions that
is now my favorite Valentine's you know, and they showed
it at the plaza on Valentine's Day. They did. Anyway,
(15:37):
the ultimate breakup film. The three partition leave of the
strawberry was believed to represent the Holy Trinity, the strawberry
itself a drop of christ blood, and the five flower
pedals the five wounds of Christ. In six the royal
gardens of King Charles the Fifth had twelve thousand strawberry plants.
In fourteen eighty five, one of the first botanical illustrations
(15:57):
of a strawberry appeared in her Berries. They were still
largely viewed as ornamental, though Europeans were cultivating strawberries by
the hundred, particularly in France, where it was seen as
an afro dasy. Newlyweds frequently were served strawberry sep which
I've had and it is delicious, really yeah. It's just
(16:18):
kind of like a chilled puree of strawberries and I
think cream. That does sound delicious, really nice. YEA Horonomous
Bosh painted strawberries into his famous or perhaps infamous Garden
of Earthly Delights trip Tick around the year fifteen hundred.
The large scale cultivation of European strawberries was taking place
in Paris by the sixteen hundreds. This was around the
(16:40):
time it started to become equally food and ornamental. Cardinal
Thomas Wassley, a member of King Henry They's court, gets
the credit for coming up with the combo of strawberries
and cream in fifteen o nine, although it was almost
definitely a chief that came up with it. Probably I
can't imagine he spent that much time in his kitchen.
I I doubt it. I doubt it. He was integral
(17:02):
in the construction of Hampton Court and Tutor, England, an
establishment that fed over six people twice a day, and
this dessert was an easy one to prepare for a
large amount of people. Five points of good husbandry out
of fifty seven suggested that strawberry cultivation was an appropriate
quote employment for women. Wife into the garden and set
(17:24):
me a plot with strawberry roots. The best to be
got such growing abroad among thorns in the wood, well
chosen and picked to prove excellent good. Okay, sure, I
like strawberries too. I feel like I just set a
spell and I'm going to have some kind of weird
strawberry experience later. Uh. Only only you can make your
(17:47):
dreams possible. You're right, You're right. I need to take
control over my own destiny. The Fifook Gardeners a Labyrinth
came with this tidbit about strawberries. They be much eaten
at all men's tables in the summertime, with wine and sugar,
(18:09):
and they will grow in gardens until the bigness of
the mulberry. The strawberry requires small labor, but by diligence
of the gardener becometh so great that the same yielded
fair and big berries as the berries of the bremble
in the hedge, the bremble in the head, the bramble
in the hedge. In seventeen o nine, Louis the fourteenth
Doctor apparently forbade him from eating strawberries for reasons unknown um,
(18:32):
though the book History of Food suggests that it may
have been because he was known to over indulge in
anything that he liked, and that strawberries were his favorite fruit,
especially in wine. Um because apparently the fashion at the
time dictated that strawberries and cream was a lady's dish
and have that. Um. He also apparently held a poetry
(18:54):
competition about strawberries. That's kind of endearing. Yeah. Um, there's
a couple of poems in French if you want to
attempt to read them, yeah, or if we can get
casey on the case in here in casey on the
case party listeners wants to send us some kind of
slam poetry reading about strawberries that would be amazing. I
(19:15):
would be amazing. In sevente or seventeen fourteen differs depending
on the source. A French mathematician slash map maker, also
sometimes subscribed as a spy okay named am a day
Francois Frasier returned from Chile with the Chilean strawberry descended
from this guy was descended from the aforementioned Fraser's strawberry clan. Okay, Yes,
(19:39):
this strawberry. The Chilean strawberry was desired for its size,
but the European climate did not suit the Chilean strawberry
until it was crossed with the Virginia strawberry, a new
world variety that arrived in Europe in the sixteen hundreds,
resulting in our modern garden strawberry in seventeen fifty ish
in Brittany, France. Yeah, like, no one did this on purpose.
(20:00):
It was just this wonderful accident or or at least
like an accident that led to the sturdier, larger berries
that we know today um and which at the time
were able to be shipped out to Paris and London. Yes,
the book I mentioned at the top, the strawberry five pages.
I mean, it was just so many experiments of crossing
(20:20):
strawberries with different strawbres and they didn't know why it
was happening or what was working. Like they couldn't figure
out like what specifically about this plant versus this plant
led to this other plant, and the terminology was described
in ways that was very confusing because it was like
masculine strawberry versus feminine strawberry. Oh yeah, there's a whole
thing with the sex of strawberries. It's actually super fascinating.
(20:41):
I didn't make notes about it because it's also kind
of dull, yeah, and complicated somehow both at the same time.
Well there, okay, quick sidebar. There are masculine ones. There
are male strawberries and female strawberries, and there are some
hermaphrodite strawberries, and the way that they read therefore can
(21:01):
be a bunch of different ways. They are also um
like the most recent plant known to have developed male
and female plants. Most plants originally were hermaphroditic, but yeah,
I don't know the strawberry. The strawberry. This is why
I didn't. It was very complicated in that book. But
(21:26):
they were. They were into it again. That was one
of my main takeaways. They were determined to figure this out.
They're really into it all right. Back to some history.
In seventeen sixty four, seventeen year old Antoine Nicola Duchesna
gifted a pot of Chilean strawberries to King Louis the fifteenth.
The berries were painted for the Royal Botanic Library, and
Duchesna was tasked with raising more of the strawberries at
(21:48):
the Verst Sailles kitchen garden. He went on to write
a treatise on strawberries, like seventeen and I think it
took him several years, but he was very young. When
it came out. He was like seen as the expert
on a strawberry for a while. Cool, so good for
that guy. Yeah, legend goes that prominent member of Napoleon's court,
Madame Tutien baits and fresh strawberry juice. We don't know
(22:11):
how frequently, but one back goldverd two pounds of strawberries,
two pounds of gosh, would you just be sticky. I
feel like you would just be sticky and then all
the flies and bees would come at you. Did she
think this through. Maybe it is just a legend. Maybe
that's just one of those stories people said. Yeah. When
(22:35):
the first European galist arrived in North America, they found
that wild strawberries were abundant. Native Americans used them in
their cooking. Strawberry bread was probably present at the earliest
American feast. This meant that strawberries weren't really cultivated until
the nineteenth century, when a fancy new dessert had a
meteoric rise. Strawberries and cream yep, New York became the
(22:58):
center of strawberry py action and shipping. After the advent
of refrigerated railroad cars. They were a popular street food
in big cities, the strawberries and cream street food. One
Cherokee legend describes an argument between a man and a
woman and she runs from the man. The man implore
the creator to sew her down so you could catch
up with her and apologize. Here, so the Creator threw
(23:20):
down berries to slow down, but she didn't stop until
she encountered strawberries. She filled a basket with them and
returned to the man ready to Yeah. By the time
the guy caught up, she was like, oh man, we've
got strawberries. And he was like I like those two. Yeah,
strawberries bring people together. I don't know if i'd use them,
you know your Miles Mayberry in arguments. But maybe Tony
(23:43):
Stark knows about this legend and that's why he brings pepper.
Maybe he knew what he was doing all along. When
we don't give Tony Stark and he credited for its
Cherokee mythology, yes, so we don't. It's true, it's true.
We need to reconsider this. U. S. Strawberry production was
common by eight and that's around when large scale production
(24:07):
began in Europe. To throughout the eighteen hundreds, more strawberries
were produced in the U S And Europe, partially because
the Industrial Revolution and its speedy trains and ships allowed
um these still relatively delicate berries to make it into
cities from far flung farms, thus calling for more production. Yes,
in horticulturalist Charles Hovey debuted the Hovey cultivar. In eighteen fifty,
(24:32):
we had the first strawberry festival. Strawberries and cream were
a feature at the very first Wimbledon held in eighteen
seventies seven. I almost went on a very big Wimbledon
rabbit hole, but I had to pull it together. Good
for you, Yes, but if anyone's ever been and knows
about the food traditions there, oh absolutely let us know.
Oh gosh, we'll have to go. Well, we all have
(24:54):
to have a Derby episode, Wimbledon episode, all the things.
I can play some tennis. I can't kept beating Wimbledon,
but I played in its back in my day, so
I would appreciate it, I suppose, is what I'm saying. Cool. Yeah, cool.
During World War Two what would become drift goals when
a group of growers hired some breeders and get their
journey to dominate, the berry market sort of got its
(25:15):
first its foundation, I guess. Prior to that, Um and
Japanese in tournament, Japanese immigrants dominated the US strawberry market.
While modern strawberries were introduced in Japan in the eighteen forties,
first as decorations, it wasn't until the spread of greenhouses
during and after World War Two that strawberries became more
affordable and widespread up there. Also, after World War two
(25:37):
um in the nineteen fifties, so okay. For about thirty years,
farmers in California had been struggling with the soil born
fungus UM that would cause strawberry crops to wilt. It's
frequently called wilt um. Researchers in the fifties finally came
upon a combination of compounds that could combat this. Unfortunately,
that combination was too toxic. Compounds clara pigrine, which is
(26:00):
a tear gas that was used in World War One,
and methyl bromide, which is a pesticide that was started
to be used in World War Two. But this combo
was so effective at killing wilt fung gui that it
became basically the industry standard to fumigate your strawberry soil
with the combination. Like apparently, banks in California would not
lend money to farmers who were not fumigating um. It
(26:23):
allowed yields to increase um and growers to focus on
creating new varieties. Right and in n DRIs coll debut
their first proprietary strawberry Z five A, and the industry
does still use these compounds even though they're a danger
to the environment and farm workers and local communities who
(26:43):
get exposed to them. Um. There's an excellent episode of
the podcast gastropod all about it. UM. The episode is
called Running on Fumes Strawberries Dirty Secret. It came out
just last year, in twenty nineteen. UM. Go check that
out for lots more short story, there are alternatives being investigated. UM.
For example, lots of farmers in Europe used greenhouses and
(27:04):
either hydroponics or other media than soil. But unfortunately those
methods are kind of expensive, and so the industry has
built it up to such a point that it's it
would cost more than it's worth to a lot of
farmers to switch over a little bit more on that
in a second. In the meanwhile, Uh, strawberry fields. So
(27:24):
I totally forgot about this when I was doing the outline.
I just kind of randomly thought about that and just
put Strawberry Fields Forever question Mark and Lauren answered my question. Yeah, okay.
So um. The Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever came out
in nine UM, and it is partially in reference to
(27:45):
this Salvation Army location in Liverpool, England, which is a
Victorian era house and the surrounding grounds which were called
Strawberry Field. Um. So John Lennon spent time there as
a kid and eventually wrote this song. Um. It was
a children's home from the nineteen thirties through almost the
end of the century and has been reopened as a
(28:06):
historic site and education center for local kids with with
differing learning abilities. There's also a part of a Central
Park called Strawberry Fields that was dedicated to Lenin in
the year after his death in his home near Central Park. Yes,
and as you can imagine, quite a big tourist draw,
but usually someone playing music. And yeah, very pretty over there. Yeah. Yeah,
(28:28):
there's a there's a nice little stone mosaic with imagine
in the middle. Yeah. Um. Or researchers mapped the first
genome of a strawberry in eleven um. The the wood strawberry,
which is F veska um. The common commercial variety didn't
get its genome mapped all the way until it's more complicated.
(28:48):
It has eight sets of chromosomes, meaning it has four
direct parents. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot. It's it's it's
a lot to contend with, like genetically speaking, um, but yeah,
this genome map might lead to new developments in breeding
varieties that have more of the traits that we want,
like flavor and resistance to pests like wilt um, and
(29:10):
fewer that we don't want, which in turn might finally
help get those toxic compounds out of the industry. Um
like like it's it's bad, y'all. Like like one of
the downsides of of bethel bromide is that it contributes
to ozone depletion. UM, But it's considered so crucial to
large scale strawberry production that the industry, the strawberry industry
(29:31):
has successfully lobbied for its continued use for thirty years. Um.
Albeit it's been scaled back to just in nurseries as
but it's still like hoof gosh. There's also a whole
book about that called Wilted Pathogens, Chemicals and the Fragile
Future of the Strawberry Industry. Um. If you're looking for
(29:55):
uh interesting if slightly depressing, read something to uplement Giljoy corner. Yeah, yeah,
it's it's I think it's hopeful in the end, because
it's saying that that with better farming practices and more
awareness of all of these compounds that we started using
in the nineteen hundreds that aren't great, that are that
(30:17):
are good for very specific things, but are not great
for other reasons. Um that by just being more aware
of stuff like that, and by changing um consumer and
industry expectations about the cost of food, that we can
all make good change in the world. And we all
want to do that. We do and and I and
(30:37):
I wanted to end on a slightly nicer note than
that one, So so tell us a nice story, Eddie. Okay, Okay. So,
as I was doing the research for this episode, there
was one variety of strawberry that kept coming up. It
was kind of like a white whale almost like people
mentioned it. I didn't really know what they were talking about,
but I found a whole article that in sixteen, David
Carp at the Smithsonian reported on the journey of horticulture
(31:00):
risk Harry N. Schwartz to try and breed the favorite
strawberry of Jane Austen, Okay, that has long been out
of the rotation. And it's called the musk strawberry, yes,
because of its its musky scent. Oh yeah, it has
a very strong smell. It was described as spicy and
floral and a mix of honey and wine and cheese. Yeah.
(31:23):
It was a popular cultivar in Europe from the sixteenth
to the nineteenth centuries, and Jane Austen loved it, loved it,
but they were soft and didn't transport well, so they
fell out of fashion in favor of heartier cultivars. They
were still around, they were just very very rare. Fdr
fell in love with them after trying some of the
child while traveling in Germany, so much so he asked
(31:46):
the Secretary of Agriculture to dabble into musk varieties of
strawberries backing strawberries. Yeah, it's a it was a really
interesting reed. We're giving you a lot of little sources
you can go check out, but this. But it was
cool because the person who's trying to bring these back
just described him trying, like all of these strawberries. Nope, nope,
(32:12):
that's what I understand. A lot of strawberry researchers wind
up doing just eating like a lot of strawberries and
being like huh no, not quite yeah, like maybe this one, yeah,
I don't know, I can't. I can't imagine that. You know,
our very first episode we did on sparkling wine, the
our friend the Brewer, he said something that stayed with
me to this day was that he was waiting until
(32:34):
his palette was refined enough to be able to appreciate
some really expensive I think from the Titanic bottle of
something that he's just saving. He's like, yeah, my palt's
not developed enough to taste it yet, so I'm just
gonna wait. I still think about that. Yeah, But I mean,
I guess if every day you're trying strawberries, you learned
to pick out on the certain things. Yeah, I guess.
(32:58):
Very impressive, very depressive. That's about what we have to
say on the strawberry. We do have a little bit
more for you, but first we've got one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
(33:20):
listen beautiful. Except for my elbow hit the mike. I apologized.
You know I had to do the choreography, Laura wrote,
You don't know how excited I was to day to
open my podcast app to see the title waxing poetic
(33:41):
about sticky Rice in my podcast feed. As someone with
a taie mother who was born and lived for a
few years in Gentian Laos, I have tried my whole
life to express my love and admiration for gluteness rice,
or as we always called it growing up, sticky rice.
We ate it with almost every meal. Much like how
other cultures use bread to mop up sauces, we use
balls of sticky rice to scoop up larb topped with
(34:01):
spicy sete and swirl and papaya salad. But no one
I grew up with had ever heard of it, and
even nowadays it is rare to find on Asian menus.
Once a friend of mine asked how to make sticky
rice like they serve with Chinese takeout. I was a guest. First,
I informed him that the rice from Chinese takeout was
not sticky ice, and then proceeded to inform him that
(34:24):
to make rice that doesn't cook into individual little loose greens,
I would be impossible to lift with a pair of chopsticks.
He had to start with a rice that does not
come from a box and has nothing to do with
the San Francisco treat. My two girls grew up loving
sticky rice too, which became a bit awkward when I
took my youngest to her pediatrician and the doctor asked
her what her favorite foods were. In addition to gluteness rice,
(34:46):
my daughter loves steamed art of chokes, so her three
year old reply was stinky rice and leaves. She didn't
know they were called artichokes. I could only wonder what
my doc thought I fed my child on the daily
stinky rice and leaves. I mean it sounds of the thing. Yeah,
(35:08):
that's not the worst, not the worst. Three year olds
are good at the worst, Yes they are. Um Antonio wrote,
I'm the longtime listener who wrote in last year about
the pineapple mention in the favorite Oh thank you. Yeah. Well,
I was catching up on episodes that came out around
the holidays, and the Pineapple Redux episode was like an
(35:29):
awesome related New Year's surprise. I visited Hawaii quite a
bit in the past few years, so I really enjoyed
the episodes related to your trip, especially the visit to
a pineapple farm. I just got back from Kawaii, where
I toward the Kauaie sugar Loaf pineapple farm. The Quai
sugar loaf is a white pineapple that's super sweet and
fleshy that you can even eat the core. Unfortunately, the
(35:49):
pineapples are in short supply and the farm had a
lot of back orders. Each person was only able to
bring back a baby pineapple you picked, so we made
sure to power wash them twice to an sure that
they could pass agricultural inspections to bring back to the mainland.
We gave one to our pineapple obsessed friend who is
attempting to plant them in our considerably cooler Northern California climate.
(36:10):
This friend, on a previous trip to Hawaii, vowed to
eat a pineapple a day. That scheme came in handy
when we went to the beach and my husband and
I both got stung by jellyfish. We had no remedies
nearby and didn't want to pee on the wound. We
realized we needed something acidic to neutralize the sting. Our
friend had packed some pineapple chunks as snacks first family,
so we just started rubbing our limbs with pineapple chunks,
(36:31):
which did the job just fine. As for the sugarloaf pineapple,
they're only sold at farmers markets and stores on Kauai
and at a few specialty grocery stores when in supply.
On Wahu and Maui. One can order and get them
shipped to the mainland. But better yet, you can all
do another saver Field trip to the islands you missed
and visit the farm yourselves. A pineapple a day keeps
(36:52):
the stingers away. Well, there you go, doctor recommend it.
I suppose we have to return. I guess we gotta go. Oh.
I never would have thought to put pineapple on a
jellyfish sting, but now my mind is expanded. There you go.
Oh gosh. We learned such wonderful things from you all listeners.
(37:12):
We really do, and we would love to continue to
do so. So thanks to both of them for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is Hello at savor pod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram,
and Facebook at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio,
(37:33):
you can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always for super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks
to you for listening, and we hope the lots more
good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com