Archive for the 'strawberry chocolate history' Category
Strawberry and Chocolate Facts
Lots of kids name the strawberry as their favorite fruit. According to the USDA in fact, over half of kids in the United States say strawberries are their number one fruit choice. The average strawberry has approximately two hundred seeds. Believe it or not, the strawberry is related to the rose. This is yet another reason we see the connection between the act of giving chocolate covered strawberries and roses as romantic gifts.
Strawberry leaves, or leaflets, usually have oval, serrated leaves in a five petal arrangement. Now the name itself is a bit of a mystery. Researchers have often guessed that because the offspring from the main strawberry plant scattered around it, they had “strewn” runners. Other suggestions are that the old English world for hay was streaw. Hay was harvested simultaneously with the blossoming of the ripe strawberries, and thus these berries that were ready when the haystraw was were heralded as strawberries. Another story is that in order to stop the berries from rotting on the ground, farmers actually placed straw around the plants. No one knows exactly for sure.
A lot of people love to indulge in strawberries during the spring and summer months. You can eat the fruit plain - unlike in the colder months when you might put fruits on top of more hearty meals like when it’s time to crank out the waffle makers. It’s often an reflection and remembrance of freedom, relaxation and carefree days. Chances are if you’ve eaten a lot of them on the farm, on the porch, dipped as chocolate covered strawberries, or cut up in a fresh fruit salad, that they came from California. Nearly 75% of all the strawberries in the United States are grown in California. The next largest state producer is Florida, but it is primarily a West Coast dominated growing season in the States for the fruit.
So where did this marriage of the strawberry and chocolate come about? There’s a lot of berry fruits which don’t have that illustrious allure and melding with the richness of the cacao bean. Some of it is simply the structure of the fruit. A strawberry has a large surface area. It’s dense and the seeds help keep the chocolate a bit more tight and contained. A melon piece, for example, is certainly succulent and delicious. But it doesn’t have the surface that allows chocolate to keep. It’s also much more watery. It still goes ok, if you’ve tried it.
But the chocolate covered strawberry is still the king. And pretty healthy - it sure beats eating a bunch of donuts for a typical snack! The combination of red and black is also deeply sensuous and connects psychologically with romance, passion, the depths of action and emotion, and intensity. Sounds like a good pairing for romantic developments!