Right now is peak strawberry season, if we can still call them that. I just found out that strawberries aren’t technically berries. Botanically speaking, berries are fruits with seed(s) on the inside produced by one flower with a single ovary. The seed-studded strawberry is actually an “aggregate fruit,” since it’s formed from multiple ovaries of one fruit. Therefore, botanically, watermelons are berries and strawberries are not. True story.

The plump, ruby red fruit enjoys cool, moist climates and wild, woodland strawberries date back to ancient Rome. While strawberries were cultivated in France for medicinal purposes during the 13th century, the love story of modern, commercial strawberries all began five hundred years later. In the 18th century, the Virginia strawberry, a North American species, accidently cross-pollinated with the Chilean strawberry (brought to Europe by a French spy). The strawberry varieties we enjoy today all descend from that one night in France. 

A member of the rose family, strawberries provide an excellent dose of vitamin C; the anti-inflammatory fruit is also a good source of manganese, dietary fibre, and B-complex vitamins. It’s a brief season for Ontario strawberries—June and July—so get picking, eating, and even freezing before it’s too late. 

From vanilla panna cotta with strawberries, mint and honey to triple chocolate brownies with strawberry cream cheese mousse and caramel, the green-capped summer staple lined the dessert menu at Ruby Watchco all week long and will continue to do so next week. Chefs Lynn Crawford and Lora Kirk pick the strawberries themselves at McLean Berry Farm in Lakefield, Ontario. Just head a little north of Peterborough, and while you’re there you can pick your own green peas too.