It’s May, and strawberries in our part of the world are ripening.

Strawberries have been around for thousands of years; in fact, ancient Romans believed they had medicinal powers. They contain more vitamin C than oranges. They are popular around the world and grow wild in every country except Africa, Australia and New Zealand. There are 600 varieties and are the fifth highest consumed fresh fruit by weight in the U.S. behind bananas, apples, oranges and grapes.

The strawberry is actually a member of the rose family, and its most common varieties are hybrids of the wild Virginia strawberry, a native to North America.

By the 1300s the strawberry was being cultivated in Europe grown as an ornamental not food. Cross-breeding toward the berry we enjoy today began when the Virginia strawberry reached Europe in the late 1600s and the Chilean strawberry arrived in the early 1700s. The American Indians were already eating strawberries when the Colonists arrived. The crushed berries, w...