Hey, Berry Pickers!
Harvesting your own berries one pluck at a time is a wonderful feeling that reminds us of just where exactly it is that our food came! And today, we celebrate specifically strawberries as it’s National Pick Strawberries Day. It was some years back when I first posted about this day, here on the Blog—we learned that strawberries aren’t actually berries, but closely related to the elegant Rose, as well as the fact that the so-called “seeds” on the outside are in actuality, tiny fruits.
I could tell you more facts that we know about strawberries like how each one has a rough 
count of 200 so-called seeds on the outside. Or that the average American eats three and a half pounds of strawberries every year. Or that strawberries are excellent sources of vitamins such as C, B6, and K. However, instead of continuing to deliver these strawberry stats, I’d like to discuss what we don’t know about them…
One thing we don’t know is why we call strawberries ‘strawberries’.
Yes, the name of this (technical aggregate accessory) fruit, is actually totally unknown to us in the modern day, now long-forgotten why we ever called this thing which is not a berry nor is it related to straw a ‘strawberry’. While many believe the reason to be that the strawberry plant is grown in straw, these plants have had their name for well-over a thousand years—long before they were included in farming or gardening as they were named by folks who happened upon these wild patches!
Nobody knows for sure, but we have theories:
Strung on Straw
Some say the woodland pickers strung them on straw pieces for convenient transportation to market.
Stuck with Straw
Others maintain that the fruit appears as though it’s had bits of straw embedded into the surface.
Straw…n About
Some even think ‘straw’ refers to the Old English meaning to strew. Since the plant runners stray in chaotic fashion, some say they look STREWN about the ground.
I don’t know…. All these theories seem pretty weak to me. But they’re kind of the best we’ve got. And whether it makes any sense or not, I like the sound of the name ‘strawberry’ and I like the taste of them too! Cheers to everyone today with this so-called berry and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!
- John