When I was in high school one of my favorite summer jobs was picking strawberries for a neighbor who sold them commercially. The neighbor paid us, and she fed us lunch after we had harvested many quarts of the ruby berries.

Strawberries were a favorite of the indigenous people of the Americas. The people of Chile were cultivating them when the Spanish invaders arrived. Strawberries were an important part of the culture of the people who lived in the eastern woodlands of North America. The commercial strawberry sold today is a cultivar derived from a cross between Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America, and Fragaria chilioensis from Chile in South America. Now there are many varieties grown around the world.

The wild strawberry still grows along the roadsides and in the meadows. That plant, Fragaria virginiana has a white bloom. The small heart shaped fruit is edible and quite tasty. I have a golden memory tucked away of my grandson, Dalton, and the tiny wild strawberry. My granddaughter, Elizabeth, Dalton and I were driving north to visit my son, Jim. My daughter Suzi was with us. Traveling had become difficult for her at this time. We stopped at an ice cream shop for lunch in Monon, Indiana. We were enjoying lunch at a picnic table beside a field. Dalton, age six at the time, was wandering around in the field. I noticed he was popping something in his mouth. I got up to investigate, never thinking it might be something to eat. He had discovered a patch of wild strawberries and was devouring them as fast as he could pick them. Elizabeth asked the people in the ice cream shop if the meadow had been sprayed. They said no. We watched him pick berries until red juice ran down his little chin. I think this was the happiest I had ever seen him. What prompted him to taste the first one? He would not eat the berries from the grocery. The happiness we all felt on this day is a gift I cherish.

The native strawberry plant makes a nice ground cover. The berries are delicious, and the leaves can be dried to make tea. Birds gobble up the sweet fruits. There is a mock strawberry that comes from Asia. That plant has similar leaves but yellow blooms.  It produces a fruit that is edible, but it is not as tasty.

In her book, “Braiding Sweetgrass,” Robin Wall Kimmerer, devotes a chapter to strawberries. I found it interesting that she also picked strawberries for a neighbor as a teen. She explains that strawberries are a gift from the Earth, and according to their legends, strawberries grew from the heart of Sky Woman’s daughter after she died. The name in Potawatomi is ‘ode min’ or heart berry. She maintains that gifts from the Earth, like wild berries, come with an obligation for us to reciprocate. Too many of us take the gifts of nature for granted and do nothing to ensure that there will be gifts for others in the future. 

‘til next time,

Annie

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