Strawberries in bowl. Petra / Pixabay.com / 2016 / CC0 1.0
The 27th of February is Strawberry Day!
You may be wondering why this time of year for Strawberry Day?
And with good reason. Strawberry season is long past at this time in the southern hemisphere, as they head into winter there. And in the northern hemisphere, it’s still a few months away.
Well, it turns out that this is the time of year when in Southern California and in Florida, the commercial field strawberries are ready again for packing into stiff cello containers and shipping everywhere: the strawberries that are a bright red on the outside, and pure white and flavourless on the inside.
Rumour has it, the locals might get the better ones, but fragrant, sweet and juicy, the shipped ones are not. Once picked, strawberries do not continue to ripen. If you ask us at CooksInfo, this isn’t something to necessarily celebrate, but, no one asks us, and we don’t get to decide…
At least, the fruit is heart-shaped and red on the outside, so that kinda makes it appropriate for Valentine’s month.
Things you could do to celebrate Strawberry Day:
- get a jar of good-quality artisanal strawberry jam;
- if you have home-canned strawberry jam, perhaps you could spare a jar to gift to a friend [1]be sure it was canned it using a safe, lab-tested recipe such as one from the USDA, the National Center for Home Food Preservation, Ball or Bernardin
- buy some dried ones to mix into a snacking mix;
- buy strawberry syrup;
- buy strawberry ice cream;
- buy frozen strawberries;
- make smoothies, pudding, pie, milkshakes;
- learn how to make dried strawberries;
- if you live in southern California or somewhere where high-quality fresh strawberries are available, there are of course many recipes available from salads to desserts for taking advantage of them;
- maybe buy some strawberry flavoured lip calm or strawberry scented shampoo or soap.
See our home food preservation site for recipes for home-canning various strawberry products.
#NationalStrawberryDay #StrawberryDay
See also: Strawberries, Strawberries and Cream Day, Strawberry Cream Pie Day, Strawberry Ice Cream Day
History Day
The earliest print reference that CooksInfo is aware of for a Strawberry Day on the 27th of February is from 2006 in Texas:
Bridgeport, Texas: Bridgeport Index. 2 February 2006. Page 21, col. 5.
Prior to that more northern states were proclaiming it to be sometime in June.
“The sixth of June might well be proclaimed ‘National Strawberry Day’ for on that day Governor Winthrop arrived at Cape Ann with the Massachusetts Bay Charter. He wrote in his diary, “Most of our people went ashore on the land of Cape Ann, and gathered a store of wild strawberries.” One can imagine how welcome that fresh fruit tasted after the weary, monotonous weeks crossing the Atlantic.” [2]Pearson, Hayden S. Country flavor: Wild strawberries. Randolph, Vermont: White River Valley Herald.13 June 1957. Page 8, col. 3
Sources
Cabness, Mariann. Today is National Strawberry Day. WWTI ABC. 27 February 2020. Accessed March 2021 at https://www.informnny.com/abc50-now/today-is-national-strawberry-day/
Haynes, Madisson. 8 Berry Good National Strawberry Day Recipes. PBS. 27 February 2020. Accessed March 2021 at https://www.pbs.org/articles/2020/02/10-berry-good-national-strawberry-day-recipes/
References