Every May 20th, National Pick Strawberries Day encourages us to pick some strawberries. Right about this time of year, they start coming into season. And there is just something special about the taste of a sun-warmed strawberry picked straight off of the vine.

Strawberry picking time is usually between late April and throughout the summer, depending on what part of the United States you live. When harvesting strawberries, you want to look for the bright red, firm, and plump ones.

• Strawberries are members of the rose family
• They are the only fruit with their seeds on the outside
• Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C
• Like most berries, they are low-fat, low in calories and a good source of fiber, folic acid, and potassium
• Strawberries help can help fight bad cholesterol and may reduce inflammation
• The first strawberries were grown in France in the late 18th century. Prior to the 18th century, wild strawberries were collected and commonly used as a fruit source.

Strawberries are best fresh, but they also make delicious desserts. We’re thinking about strawberry shortcakes or adding them to homemade yogurt and fresh jams.

History of Pick Strawberries Day

First, let’s talk about the origin of the strawberry. These beautiful red jewels dangling from their green vines seem just a bit too perfect to have been the pure manufacture of Mother Nature, so where did they come from? Well, as it turns out they did, in fact, come from Mother Nature informs largely similar to those we grow in our gardens today. Strawberries have had a reputation not just for being delicious, but also for having astounding medicinal properties, at least according to 16th-century pharmacists.

But the origin of the berry as we know it comes from Brittany, France, where it was first cultivated in a garden in the 1750s, as a blend of two other forms of wild strawberry. Long before this, however, they had begun cultivating them in their gardens from the wild, as early as the 14th century. They’ve been with us ever since as a popular dessert and food item, and are grown in the thousands all over the world.

Pick Strawberries Day encourages you to get out and experience the wonders of picking strawberries first hand, and there are local u-pick strawberry fields that spring up anywhere strawberries are grown.