Produce

Strawberries (Whole)

Strawberries are technically not a true berry in the strict botanical sense — their seeds sit on the outside of the fruit, a structural quirk that excludes them from the botanical berry category bananas and grapes actually belong to.

Mold spreads notably fast between strawberries in a shared container once it starts on one berry, which is why checking a carton regularly and removing any affected berry helps protect the rest of the batch.

Washing strawberries only right before eating, not before storing, helps them last their full fridge window, since added moisture accelerates mold growth the same way it does for most soft fruit.

California grows the large majority of strawberries sold in the US, a dominance built on the state's long growing season and a shift decades ago toward day-neutral varieties that fruit continuously through most of the year rather than the older June-bearing varieties, which produce one concentrated harvest and then stop.

Strawberry shortcake, layers of biscuit or cake with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream, has roots stretching back to English and early American cooking, and the dish's popularity was part of what pushed strawberry breeding toward larger, firmer commercial varieties suited to shipping rather than the smaller, more fragile wild strawberries earlier versions relied on.

Strawberries and cream is such a fixed part of the Wimbledon tennis tournament's identity that the All England Club reportedly serves well over a hundred thousand portions across the two-week event each year, a tradition dating back to the tournament's earliest decades in the late 19th century.

Vertical and greenhouse strawberry farming has expanded significantly in recent years as growers look to extend the growing season and reduce dependence on open-field conditions vulnerable to weather, pests, and the soil-borne diseases that have made strawberry fields historically reliant on heavy fumigation between plantings.

Wild strawberries, much smaller and more intensely flavored than the large cultivated varieties sold in cartons, still grow across much of the Northern Hemisphere and were the only strawberry Europeans knew before French breeders crossed two wild New World species in the 1700s to create the much larger garden strawberry sold today.

Chocolate-covered strawberries became a fixture of Valentine's Day gift boxes and dessert menus in the US in the latter half of the 20th century, a pairing that leans on the berry's natural acidity and juiciness to cut against the richness of a dipped chocolate coating.

By volume consumed, strawberries are the most popular berry in the US by a wide margin, ahead of blueberries and raspberries, a popularity built on their year-round import availability, relatively low price, and versatility across desserts, smoothies, and simple fresh eating.

The University of California, Davis runs one of the largest and longest-running strawberry breeding programs in the world, developing many of the specific varieties grown commercially across California, work focused on balancing flavor, disease resistance, and the firmness needed for a berry to survive shipping without bruising.