We celebrate all things strawberries this week. Here are some things you may n ot know about one of the South’s favorite foods:
- It is an aggregate accessory fruit i.e. here the ovaries don’t form the fruit but some other part of the flower becomes fleshy and not one but many such fleshy parts combine to form strawberry. To explain it more clearly it is a false fruit, the fleshy part you are eating is actually the stem of the plant.
- Strawberry is a member of rose family and it is the only fruit which has seeds outside. It is the first fruit that ripens in the spring season.
- Strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges and they help in reducing inflammations. They are great even for treating cataracts and other eye diseases.
- Romans loved strawberries and not just for its taste. They believed that it could cure melancholy, fever, bad breath, chronic fainting, and spleen and liver disorders
- Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
- On average, there are 200 seeds in a strawberry.
- One cup of strawberries is only 55 calories
- Each acre of land in California in strawberry production produces an average of 21 tons of strawberries annually. 23,000 acres of strawberries are planted in California each year.
- California is #1 in strawberry production and Florida is #2.
- California produces an amazing one billion pounds of strawberries each year.
