Strawberry Season!

It’s strawberry season and I love strawberries, so you can probably guess the topic for this week’s Plant Talk. As you can see, I have quite a prolific strawberry patch, although I admit I didn’t grow all these berries myself. My Human Sidekick won’t let me dig in the dirt for some reason, so I had my Personal Landscaper Judy design, plant and care for my strawberry patch. She’s real good with plants, as you can see.

In my research for this week’s blog, I learned that the strawberry is a member of the rose family.  So I guess it’s a cousin to my friend Rose-iangelo the artist. I also learned that the name strawberry comes from the old English word streawberige given to the plant because it sends out runners that look like pieces of straw.

Now here’s something you might not want to try with your strawberries—it’s said that Madame Tallien, a member of the court of Napoleon, used to take baths in the juice of fresh strawberries.  She used 22 pounds per basin! I couldn’t find a picture of her, but if she needed that many strawberries for a bath I’m envisioning a fat lady with a real red complexion.

Here’s another weird strawberry fact. In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the traditional rite of hanging small baskets of strawberries from the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They think the elves love strawberries, so in return for the treat they’ll make sure the cows produce healthy calves and lots of milk. I personally don’t see how elves are going to do all that, I think they bamboozled someone at some point to get some easy strawberries, but hey, whatever works for you.

I can think of better things to do with my strawberries than hang them on my cow for the elves to steal.  For instance, there’s strawberry chiffon pie, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry jello and regular strawberry pie. (Thanks to my personal baker Sue for all these yummy treats. And I’ll be waiting for you to come share them with me, Jenn!)

One last thing about strawberries—the ancient Romans believed that the strawberry alleviated symptoms of melancholy. So if you’re feeling kinda down about anything, get yourself a plate of strawberries.

Or maybe follow my example by taking some down time in your hammock with a strawberry margarita by your side.