Strawberry Fields Forever: Celebrating National Pick Strawberries Day

May 20, 2019

On this day, dear fellow cultivators of sweet delights, we celebrate National Pick Strawberries Day. A more delicious occasion one could scarcely imagine!

Last year, in a fit of horticultural rebellion, I eschewed the traditional annual hanging baskets and instead suspended strawberry baskets above my herb garden. Oh, what a triumph it was!

The joy of plucking (and promptly devouring) sun-warmed strawberries while tending to one's herbs is a pleasure beyond compare. Between my eager student gardeners and myself, precious few berries made it indoors.

Yet, was it not a marvelous alternative to the usual floral display?

I daresay I shall repeat the experiment this year.

Did you know, my dears, that strawberries are members of the illustrious rose family?

They stand unique among fruits, their seeds brazenly displayed on the exterior - nature's own jewel-encrusted orbs.

It was in the late 18th century that strawberries first graced French soil, beginning a love affair that persists to this day.

How delightful it is to peruse early newspaper accounts of these beloved berries in the 1800s!

Imagine, if you will, the excitement in 1843 when the New York Daily Herald announced the arrival of the season's first strawberries at Pattinson's, on the corner of Ann and Nassau.

They were, we're told, "as red as the last day." In Baltimore, these rubies of the plant world were selling for a mere three to six cents a quart for the finest specimens.

Green peas, abundant as they were, commanded two shillings a peck.

Fast forward two decades to Columbus, Ohio, where the Daily Ohio Statesman of May 27, 1864, reported with charming enthusiasm:

"The first strawberries of the season were visible to the naked eye in Charlie Wagner's show window yesterday– a window, by the way, in which everything new in the fruit line is always first seen in Columbus."

One can almost picture the eager faces pressed against that window, can't one?

But perhaps the most touching tribute to our beloved fruit comes from The Woodstock Mercury of Woodstock, Vermont.

On July 27, 1854, they eloquently placed strawberries among life's most cherished firsts:

First things are good or bad, as it may happen or as you take them.

The first shad or the sleighing, the first strawberries or first child, the first kiss of love or first pair of whiskers, these may be ranged among the primordial delights.

Indeed!

Is there anything quite like the first strawberry of the season, its flavor bursting upon the tongue like a sweet revelation?

So, my fellow gardeners, on this most delectable of days, I implore you: venture forth into your gardens, your local farms, or even your nearest grocery store.

Procure for yourself a handful of these rubies of the plant world.

And as you savor each juicy morsel, remember the centuries of delight they have brought to countless souls before us.

May your harvests be bountiful, and may your strawberries always be sun-warmed and sweet!