Strawberry

“ The strawberry is a hip turned inside-out, the frutescent receptacle changed into a scarlet ball, or cone, of crystalline and delicious coral, in the outside of which the separate seeds, husk and all, are imbedded. ”

“ He now showed a number of the plants in pots, laden with fruit, and such was the size and number of the berries upon each plant that people were astonished, curiosity was excited, and public attention fairly aroused to the examination of the claims of this new strawberry. Intelligent and experienced cultivators of fruit clustered around the stand on which the plants were displayed, and many then united in the opinion that for productiveness, size of berry, firmness of flesh and good flavor, it would surpass any then known variety as a valuable market strawberry. ”

“ But the favorite haunt of the wild strawberry is an uplying meadow that has been exempt from the plow for five or six years, and that has little timothy and much daisy. When you go a-berrying, turn your steps toward the milk-white meadows. The slightly bitter odor of the daisies is very agreeable to the smell, and affords a good background for the perfume of the fruit. The strawberry cannot cope with the rank and deep-rooted clover, and seldom appears in a field till the clover has had its day. ”

“ The best of all strawberries, even in this age of a thousand cultivated varieties, were those gathered in youth upon the grassy hill-side. The flavor of the wild strawberry is nearly lost in many of the larger and more showy fruits of her highly pampered offspring. ”

“ The real strawberry sends off runners with young rooting plants; the false does not. When the fruit is formed there is no longer danger of confounding the two species, for the false plant entirely lacks the fleshiness of the true. The fruit of the Strawberry is a compound one, consisting of a large number of achenes scattered over the enlarged and succulent top (receptacle) of the flower-stalk, beneath which are spread out the persistent green calyx-lobes.
Wild Strawberry.
Fragaria vesca.
—Rosaceæ.—
Milkwort. ”

“ While the strawberry fruitlets retain throughout their dry outer coating, in those of the raspberry the external covering becomes fleshy and red, but the inner seed has, notwithstanding, a still harder shell than the tiny nuts of the strawberry. Now, this is the secret of nine fruits out of ten. They are really nuts, which clothe themselves in an outer tunic of sweet and beautifully coloured pulp. The pulp, as it were, the plant gives in, as an inducement to the friendly bird to swallow its seed ”

“ HOW TO PLANT AND CULTIVATE STRAWBERRIES Just why growing one’s own strawberries should create a sense of superiority is difficult to say, but it does. City friends, who accept really difficult agricultural accomplishments with matter-of-fact indifference, tender a sort of wondering respect to the strawberry-grower, and what is more extraordinary, the grower invariably accepts the laudation with the condescending pride of a victor. ”

“ I doubt whether, with our present experience of good Strawberries, we should join in this high praise of the Strawberries of Shakespeare's or Isaak Walton's day, for their varieties of Strawberry must have been very limited in comparison to ours. Their chief Strawberry was the Wild Strawberry brought straight from the woods, and no doubt much improved in time by cultivation. Yet we learn from Spenser and from Tusser that it was the custom to grow it just as it came from the woods. ”

“ Now the potentilla shows us, as it were, the primitive form of the strawberry. But in the developed ripe strawberry as we now find it the fruitlets are not crowded upon a green receptacle. After flowering, the strawberry receptacle lengthens and broadens, so as to form a roundish mass of succulent pulp; and as the fruitlets approach maturity this sour green pulp becomes soft, sweet, and red. The little seed-like fruits, which are the important organs, stand out upon its surface like mere specks ”

“ The Fairies in the West of England are very careful of the Strawberry Crop
[57] All we know about Strawberries
“STRAWBERRIES and cream for supper,” sang out the boy named Billy, “wild ones. Got ’em over in the clearing in the woods where the fire ran through last year. Whoppers! I wonder how they ever got there, and why do we call them strawberries? They are far from being the color of straw. Just look at my hands.” ”

“ Straw, straw, n. the stalk on which corn grows, and from which it is thrashed: a quantity of these when thrashed: anything worthless, the least possible thing.—ns. Straw′berry, the delicious and fragrant fruit of any of the species of the genus Fragaria, the plant itself; Straw′berry-leaf, a symbolic ornament on the coronets of dukes, marquises, and earls—in pl. a dukedom; Straw′berry-mark, a soft reddish nævus or birth-mark; Straw′berry-tree, a species of Arbutus, which produces a fruit resembling the strawberry ”

“ The wise man will seek to avail himself of these, and will find in our summer fruits a convenient and designed supply. As the summer heat begins, how grateful is the strawberry, with its mingled sweet and sour, counteracting the bilious tendencies of the season, and refreshing while it gratifies. ”

“ STRAWBERRY, or Fragaria, a genus of plants, comprehending three species, two of which are indigenous; but the principal is the vesca, or Common Strawberry, growing in woods, hedges, and hollow ways; where its flowers appear in the month of May or June; and are succeeded by small red fruit. The plant is eaten by sheep and goats, but is not relished by cows; and is totally refused by horses and swine. ”

“ And the root of the strawberry-plant sucks up sap that is fitted to make its pleasant fruit.
The pepper-plant and the strawberry-plant are so different from each other, that we should hardly suppose that they could grow out of the same earth side by side. But they can. How is this? Do the little mouths in the roots choose their food? They do. The strawberry mouths choose what will make strawberries, and the pepper mouths choose what will make peppers. But they do not choose in the same way that we choose. They do not think about it as we do. ”

“ Early raspberries, cherries, currants, apricots, peaches and nectarines are to be obtained, but the strawberry is master of the situation. Some pretend that the flavour of the wild strawberry is superior to that of the finest cultivated varieties. Strawberries make an excellent beginning for the day, and never taste better than when plucked and eaten at once. ”

“ There are doubtless many among the inhabitants of our towns and cities who have never gathered or seen the strawberry in its wild state; and many, very many more who are wholly unacquainted with the peculiar and interesting structure of this fruit and its allies—the raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, and their congeners. ”

“ MARKET STRAWBERRIES Thus far I have named those kinds whose fine flavor and beauty entitle them to a place in the home garden. But with a large class, market qualities are more worthy of consideration; and this phase of the question introduces us to some exceedingly popular varieties not yet mentioned. The four great requirements of a market strawberry are productiveness, size, a good, bright color, and—that it may endure long carriage and rough handling—firmness. ”

“ My neighbors also complain of it in the same way. But for my own family consumption, I prefer it to any strawberry I have ever eaten. The flavor is rich and luscious beyond description, while the crisp seeds crackle between your impatient grinders with reverberations loud enough to penetrate the utmost depths of a hungry stomach. So long as my vines continue to produce only one-fourth as much as others, I shall continue to grow this unsurpassable variety. It sends off runners in amazing abundance. When grown in stools, with the runners clipped off weekly, it bears profusely of enormous fruit ”

“ I am sure that it is by attention to this single matter of permitting no weeds to grow that most of the success in strawberry-culture may be attributed.
As I watched my fruit-laden plants as attentively as if each one had been an infant, it should not be wondered at [Pg 187] that my ever-present eye detected the first tinge of redness that showed itself among them. No one can imagine with how absorbing an interest I hung over this pioneer evidence of complete success. ”

“ You will find none of the dry grains which lie on the surface of the strawberry, the part which corresponds with the inner part of those, lying in the juicy pulp below, whilst that which once corresponded with their outer part or shell, has itself been transformed into that juicy pulp which covers them: the fact is, that the carpels of the raspberry, instead of remaining dry like the strawberry, swell as they ripen, and acquire a soft, pulpy coat, which in time becomes red, juicy, and sweet. ”

“ SHRUBBY STRAWBERRY. Rubus arcticus.—The fruit of this plant is very similar in appearance to a strawberry: its odour is of the most grateful kind; and its flavour has that delicate mixture of acid and sweet, which is not to be equalled by our best varieties of that fruit.
536. SWEET CICELY. Scandix odorata.—The leaves used to be employed in the kitchen as those of cervil. The green seeds ground small, and used with lettuce or other cold salads, give them an agreeable taste. It also grows in abundance in some parts of Italy, where it is considered as a very useful vegetable. ”

“ The perfume, or fragrance, of the fruit of the common strawberry when fully ripened under proper conditions of sunlight and moisture has long been esteemed and highly appreciated by mankind in general, and in this respect the fall-bearing strawberry varies greatly. The most of the varieties excel all common kinds as to perfume and that delicate strawberry flavor which nearly everybody loves so well. ”

“ The wild woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is the progenitor of our highly cultivated and delicious fruit. This little hedgerow and sylvan plant has a root which is very astringent, so that when held in the mouth it will stay any flow of blood from the nostrils. Its berries are more acid than the garden Strawberry, and make an excellent cleanser of the teeth, the acid juice dissolving incrustations of tartar without injuring the enamel. ”

“ But if you think it don’t quite account for such plump, rosy cheeks, why, then, she had to chase ever so many ways for the strawberries. Not a strawberry 050was raised in common folks’ gardens in those days. They grew mostly in farmers’ meadows; and very angry those farmers used to be at such girls as Roxy in “strawberry time”—“strawberry time” comes before “mowing,” you know—for how they did wallow and trample the grass! ”

“ STRAWBERRY (Fragaria) .—Apart from its interest as a dessert fruit, the strawberry has claims to attention by reason of the peculiarities of its structure and the excellent illustrations it offers of the inherent power of variation possessed by the plant and of the success of the gardener in availing himself of this tendency. The genus Fragaria consists of about eight species, native of the north temperate regions of both hemispheres, as well as of mountain districts in warmer climes; one species is found in Chile. ”

“ Strawberry of Montreal.—This is none of the “Strawberry” apples of the books. The tree is extra hardy, and its stout and vigorous growth, and clean, glossy bark, show it to be especially adapted to the cold north. It is erect in growth, without having a dense head. Fruit above medium in size, sometimes large, roundish-conic, yellowish, mostly splashed with red. Flesh yellowish, tender, moderately juicy, mildly sub-acid. It ripens with the Duchess of Oldenburg, but is a better dessert apple. ”

“ The Strawberry is among fruits what the Primrose and Snowdrop are among flowers, the harbinger of other good fruits to follow. It is the earliest of the summer fruits, and there is no need to dwell on its delicate, sweet-scented freshness, so acceptable to all; but it has also a charm in autumn, known, however, but to few, and sometimes said to be only discernible by few. Among "the flowers that yield sweetest smell in the air," Lord Bacon reckoned Violets, and "next to that is the Musk Rose, then the Strawberry leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell." ”

“ A writer in one of the periodicals of the day, supposes it possible that the receptacle of the strawberry might enlarge, or even come to perfection without staminate influence having at all been required. That the experiment of planting a pistillate strawberry in a situation where staminate influence could not reach it and that plant produce no berry, is the fact ”

“ There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness; [Pg 236]
The trembling eyebright showed her sapphire blue, [FD] 11
The thyme her purple, like the blush of Even;
And if the breath of some to no caress
Invited, forth they peeped so fair to view,
All kinds alike seemed favourites of Heaven. ”

“ Strawberries, Parisienne. Put some nice ripe strawberries in a bowl and put in the ice box until very cold. Make a sauce by mixing one-half pint of strawberry pulp, made by passing some strawberries through a fine strainer or sieve; one-quarter pound of powdered sugar, the juice of one lemon, and a half pint of whipped cream. Do not whip the cream too hard. When well mixed pour over the strawberries, and serve on cracked ice.
Consommé, quenelles Doria. Make a cream puff paste. When cold, form into small balls the size of a pea, and fry in swimming lard. Serve on a napkin with hot consommé. ”

“ It is useless to enumerate the several varieties, for nearly every locality has its favorite strawberry. Some kinds will scarcely bear a perfect berry in some locations, while in a different locality the same berry will be loaded with perfect fruit. ”