The pairing of strawberries and cream has an unmistakably English flavor. Consider Pimm's and somewhat rainy picnics. Perhaps the reason for this relationship is that the combination has been a mainstay of Wimbledon since the first competition there in 1877. In truth, Thomas Wolsey (or, rather, his cooks) served Henry VII the original version of this summery delight at a feast at Hampton Court palace in the early sixteenth century, which is when it first became popular. But, this gloss of "Englishness," as opposed to the exotic pineapple, may have meant that the strawberry's colonial origin was previously unrecognized.
Strawberries consumed by the Tudor court and those found on store shelves now are altogether different species. The strawberry variety we know today, however, is the result of a long history of crossbreeding strawberry varieties that were harvested from all over the Americas. With war, slavery, espionage, and the extractive colonial history of botany, the history of the strawberry is thus a history of empire. In particular, the French, British, and Spanish Empires are responsible for the flavor of the "modern" strawberry.
Throughout Europe, there have always been many strawberry kinds, but it's possible you've never tried any of them. Three types in particular are referred to as "wild or woodland strawberries" (Fragaria vesca, Fragaria moschata, and Fragaria viridis). From the Neolithic era, humans have consumed these types, according to archaeological evidence. Because strawberries are said to have grown when Aphrodite's tears mixed with the blood of the deceased Adonis and fell to the ground, strawberries were later frequently consumed in Ancient Rome during festivities honoring Adonis, the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
The woodland strawberry was also significant symbolically in medieval and early modern Europe. Strawberries were occasionally used as emblems in illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages, with the three-part leaf serving as a reminder of the Holy Trinity. The five petals of its white flower represented Christ's five wounds, and the scarlet fruits, which pointed downward, stood in for drips of his blood. Strawberries with symbolic meanings can be found throughout Shakespeare's works and are frequently used as a virginity symbol. Charles V, King of France from 1364 to 1380, cultivated 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden because he loved the fruit. 'Water of strawberries' was once used to cure Henry VIII's famed leg ulcer, indicating the fruit may also be used medicinally.
Strawberries of the Fragaria viginiana kind can be found all across North America. They are considered to be a sacred fruit by numerous Indigenous communities in the area. The Cherokee claimed that the Creator had brought together the First Man and the First Woman using a strawberry. The Oneida employ strawberry water for therapeutic purposes, just like Henry VIII's physicians. Since June is when strawberries start to ripen, several tribes refer to it as the "Strawberry Moon."
When the French and English empires invaded Turtle Island (the name for North America used by numerous Indigenous people in the northeast) in the sixteenth century, they both claimed to have "found" Fragaria virginiana. These strawberries from North America were unusually tiny and tasty. At his family's property in Shadwell, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson made a comment about strawberries that were probably picked by slaves, saying that "100 [strawberries] fill half a pint."
The strawberry seems to have been "claimed" early by the French colonizers. First European to cross Turtle Island's interior, Jacques Cartier, spoke about "huge patches of strawberries along the great river [St Lawrence] and in the woods" in 1534. Reports indicate that these North American strawberries first appeared in France in the first half of the sixteenth century. No one can definitively be identified as the person who transported these specimens to France, however the first cataloged mention dates from 1601, in the garden of Jean Robin in Paris.
Moreover, strawberries in the Americas were "discovered" by the British Empire a bit after the French. The early English colonists who settled there wrote about strawberries in a number of their works. For instance, Thomas Hariot, the notorious colony of Roanoke Island's scientific advisor, stated of this new strawberry variety: "They are as great as those we have in English gardens" (1588). He had sent seeds back to England a few years ago, but the resulting plants had had difficulty surviving. Similar to this, George Percy mentioned the fruit in his essay on the 1607 establishment of Jamestown.
The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, said in 1643 that the natives baked strawberry bread but that "the English have exceeded and make good wine." Fragaria virginiana was improved upon in 1672 by Robert Morison, an Oxford University botanist, who created a clone that thrived in the English environment. Morison studied in Paris with Vespasien Robin after earning his doctorate in western France; Robin was also the author of the first description of Fragaria virginiana, published in 1624.
Fragaria chiloensis, a strawberry native to Chile, is much larger than the types previously mentioned, yet it may be less sweet, similar to Fragaria viginiana. The reports of the invasion of Wallmapu contain descriptions (the ancestral territory of the Indigenous Mapuche). The history of this variety is strongly related to that of the Arauco War, one of the longest wars ever and one of the few in which the Spanish Empire, a European colonial force, fought an Indigenous people.
Indigenous peoples in Wallmapu also relied heavily on the Chilean version of the fruit as a source of food. Given that the Mapuche and Huiliche languages, Mapudungun, have distinct words for both wild strawberries (llahuen, lahuene, or lahueni) and cultivated strawberries (Fragaria chiloensis), it is likely that both groups cultivated Fragaria chiloensis (quellghen). However, Pedro de Valdivia, the first Spanish colonizer of Chile, used a new phrase to characterize the "new" fruit of the New World at the start of the Spanish conquest of Wallmapu in 1542. Valdivia referred to the Chilean strawberry as a frutilla, even though the word for strawberry in European Spanish was and still is fresa (Spanish for little fruit). In most of South America, the word "strawberry" has stuck and is still used to describe the fruit.
Similar to Fragaria virginiana, Fragaria chiloensis is compared favorably to European types in descriptions. According to Alonso de Ovalle, a Jesuit priest and historian of the Arauco War, "[t]hey are very different from those that I have seen here in Rome, in terms of the flavour as with the smell and in terms of quantity, because they grow as large as pears, although they ordinarily are red, there are also, in Concepción [a town in southern Chile], white and yellow ones."
The strawberry's rhetorical use to justify enslaving Indigenous peoples by emphasizing their land's fertility is one of the most disturbing aspects of its history. During a Mapuche and Huilliche uprising in 1598, the Spanish invaders experienced a string of grave setbacks that the latter dubbed "The Fall of the Seven Cities" (1599 – 1604). Chilean soldiers were compelled to reconsider their military plan. The Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile despatched soldier Alonso González de Nájera (? - 1614) to Spain in 1607 to lobby King Philip III for fresh tactics and reinforcements.
Nájera spends a substantial amount of words extolling the merits of the Chilean strawberry in his 1614 narrative of the conflict, which is essentially a long justification for the enslavement of the Mapuche. Nájera may have used these in-depth explanations of the strawberry's extraordinary flavor, aroma, and appearance to persuade King Philip III that the conquest of Chile was still worthwhile due to the region's fertile soil. His cries were disregarded, however, in favor of a plan that did not prioritize slavery.
In the strawberry tale from a century later, the French Empire reappears. King Louis XIV assigned a spy called Amédée-François Frèzier in 1712 to research the defenses of the Spanish possessions in South America. Coincidentally, his last name is derived from the French word for strawberry, fraise. He appeared to be a businessman or merchant while actually being a lieutenant colonel of Army Intelligence in order to spy on Spanish defenses. Frèzier, though, captured more than just defenses. He also wrote extensively about botany, notably the strawberry, and indigenous customs.
In 1714, he returned to Marseille with strawberry specimens; five of the twelve plants had made it to France. But while in France, they flourished in growth but bore no fruit. Only female plants, which require pollination to produce strawberries, were provided by Frèzier. Frèzier originally categorized the fruit as Fragaria chiliensis in 1717 to reflect its Chilean origins; however, in 1753 the name was changed to Fragaria chiloensis to honor the Chilean island of Chiloé, where strawberries are a common crop.
Botanists quickly discovered, nevertheless, that Fragaria chiloensis could be mated with Fragaria muschata or Fragaria vesca (varieties of woodland strawberry). Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana were successfully crossed by French botanist Antoine-Nicolas Duchesne in 1765, which is considered to be the most significant crossbreeding event. Because of the flavor of another New World fruit, the pineapple, this cross was given the name Fragaria x ananassa. Fragaria x ananassa rapidly became the preferred variety throughout Europe and continues to be so today since it now combines the size of the Chilean type with the sweetness of the North American variety.
Hence, when you eat a strawberry and comment on its sweetness or size, you are echoing the views of centuries' worth of warriors, spies, and scientists from three different empires. The strawberry serves as a visible reminder of how colonialism has influenced even the most commonplace—or superficially British—aspects of daily life.
