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#77
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Organization: Sanford and Son Gardening
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.gardens User-Agent: Xnews/5.04.25 Lines: 29 Message-ID: Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 03:15:08 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 141.152.180.79 X-Complaints-To: X-Trace: nwrddc02.gnilink.net 1079579708 141.152.180.79 (Wed, 17 Mar 2004 22:15:08 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 22:15:08 EST Path: kermit!newsfeed-east.nntpserver.com!nntpserver.com!border1.nntp.as h.giganews.com!border2.nntp.ash.giganews.com!nntp. giganews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamkiller.gnili nk.net!nwrddc02.gnilink.net.POSTED!42e0ebb9!not-for-mail Xref: kermit rec.arts.movies.current-films:538373 rec.gardens:268574 rec.gardens.edible:68696 uk.rec.gardening:192004 "David Hill" wrote in : "............The Anglo-Saxons were calling them strawberries 500 years before Columbus. They're recorded at least as far back as Roman times ........" Strawberries were cultivated by the Romans as early as 200 BC and in mediaeval times strawberries were regarded as an aphrodisiac and a soup made of strawberries, borage and soured cream was traditionally served to newly-weds at their wedding breakfast. Be that as it may, the Latin word for strawberry isn't strawberrinus, it's the infinitly more sexy 'fragum'. If I recall correctly, there is some reference to 'strawberry' in the Canterbury Tales, although I don't remember if the original used some Old English variant of 'strawberry' or a French cognate of 'fragum'. That also doesn't mean that Noah (Webster) didn't sail across the ocean bringing two of every word, and stuck 'straw' and 'berry' together as per the current spelling after seing the natives' horticultural practices, with 'straw' having been previously derived from 'strewn about' just a happy coincidence. It's also not to say that a 'fragum' did or didn't denote specificly the fruits of genus 'fragaria' or was used genericly or poeticly for some strawberry-like fruit/plant. (rec.gardens) |
#78
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Kay Easton wrote in news:W3RE9VDhXrVAFwD4
@scarboro.demon.co.uk: The plant equivalent of sperm is pollen - and that of course *is* on the outside ;-) Plants are a lot less fussy than the human male about where they deposit their sperm. You are far more likely to find a human female that is fussy about where a human male deposits his sperm. 8^@ |
#79
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Kay Easton wrote in news:W3RE9VDhXrVAFwD4
@scarboro.demon.co.uk: The plant equivalent of sperm is pollen - and that of course *is* on the outside ;-) Plants are a lot less fussy than the human male about where they deposit their sperm. You are far more likely to find a human female that is fussy about where a human male deposits his sperm. 8^@ |
#80
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
sassy326 wrote: ok even though this conversation has drifted away from its present topic i would like to ask a question about growing strawberries. I want to grow them on the south side of my house along with blueberry bushes, and rasberry bushes but have been told that they will never grow on the south side. Is this so? Well, they would grow on the south side here because I live in the frozen north. Where do you live? Be careful planting blueberries close to the house. The concrete in the house foundation tends to make the soil alkaline and it's hard to make it acid enough for blueberries. Steve |
#81
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
sassy326 wrote: ok even though this conversation has drifted away from its present topic i would like to ask a question about growing strawberries. I want to grow them on the south side of my house along with blueberry bushes, and rasberry bushes but have been told that they will never grow on the south side. Is this so? Well, they would grow on the south side here because I live in the frozen north. Where do you live? Be careful planting blueberries close to the house. The concrete in the house foundation tends to make the soil alkaline and it's hard to make it acid enough for blueberries. Steve |
#82
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Good point Loki. Down there, the south side might be too shady for
good growth as well. Steve Loki wrote: What hemisphere do you live in? South is the cold side in the Southern hemisphere. Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ] |
#83
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Good point Loki. Down there, the south side might be too shady for
good growth as well. Steve Loki wrote: What hemisphere do you live in? South is the cold side in the Southern hemisphere. Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ] |
#84
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Ha! you're pretty funny. :-)
OK, the modern strawberries that we all know and love were developed from 2 new world species. BUT... There were other species of strawberry that always lived in Europe (and beyond). So, yes. Europeans WERE eating strawberries before they were introduced from the New World. Here's a quote from a web page that tells a little mo " The Wild Strawberry or Wood Strawberry Fragaria vesca is native to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. It has become distributed worldwide and is sometimes found naturalised in southern Africa. It is a diploid species (i.e. 2 sets of chromosomes).The finding of strawberry achenes in neolithic archaeological excavations, shows that wild strawberries have been eaten by people since the earliest of times. Fragaria vesca was being cultivated in Europeans gardens by the 1500's (Renaissance) and after about 1530, cultivated strawberries are clearly larger than wild ones, indicating selective breeding. Although Fragaria vesca is still grown in gardens for domestic use, it is not used in commercial strawberry production because of the development of the Modern Garden Strawberry Fragaria ananassa." Steve Cereus-validus wrote: You no fool me Steverino, You're making that up. You claim that Europeans were eating strawberries before they were introduced from the New World. Next you will be saying that Romans wore wrist watches with Roman numerals on them!! "Steve" wrote in message More mystery than you apparently think. If your story is correct, how do you explain that they were called strawberries before Columbus sailed to America and before anyone in Europe knew that native Americans existed? I'll admit that perhaps the exact spelling of strawberry wasn't set until a little later but the name was there. I know that some people believe they were once called stray berries perhaps because their runners let them stray away from the patch where they were planted. When people started mulching with straw, the name slowly evolved into strawberry. I wasn't there so I don't know. ;-) Steve |
#85
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
Ha! you're pretty funny. :-)
OK, the modern strawberries that we all know and love were developed from 2 new world species. BUT... There were other species of strawberry that always lived in Europe (and beyond). So, yes. Europeans WERE eating strawberries before they were introduced from the New World. Here's a quote from a web page that tells a little mo " The Wild Strawberry or Wood Strawberry Fragaria vesca is native to the temperate regions of Eurasia and North America. It has become distributed worldwide and is sometimes found naturalised in southern Africa. It is a diploid species (i.e. 2 sets of chromosomes).The finding of strawberry achenes in neolithic archaeological excavations, shows that wild strawberries have been eaten by people since the earliest of times. Fragaria vesca was being cultivated in Europeans gardens by the 1500's (Renaissance) and after about 1530, cultivated strawberries are clearly larger than wild ones, indicating selective breeding. Although Fragaria vesca is still grown in gardens for domestic use, it is not used in commercial strawberry production because of the development of the Modern Garden Strawberry Fragaria ananassa." Steve Cereus-validus wrote: You no fool me Steverino, You're making that up. You claim that Europeans were eating strawberries before they were introduced from the New World. Next you will be saying that Romans wore wrist watches with Roman numerals on them!! "Steve" wrote in message More mystery than you apparently think. If your story is correct, how do you explain that they were called strawberries before Columbus sailed to America and before anyone in Europe knew that native Americans existed? I'll admit that perhaps the exact spelling of strawberry wasn't set until a little later but the name was there. I know that some people believe they were once called stray berries perhaps because their runners let them stray away from the patch where they were planted. When people started mulching with straw, the name slowly evolved into strawberry. I wasn't there so I don't know. ;-) Steve |
#86
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
il Wed, 17 Mar 2004 23:39:28 +0000, Kay Easton ha scritto:
In article , Loki writes I'm more amazed it's from the rose family. And just as long as they taste wonderful, who cares? Why? The compare a strawberry flower to a dog rose flower - there's lots of similarities. It's not half as surprising as a cyclamen belonging to the primrose I'd rather eat a strawberry than a dog rose :-) -- Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ] |
#87
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
il Wed, 17 Mar 2004 23:34:46 -0500, Steve ha scritto:
Good point Loki. Down there, the south side might be too shady for good growth as well. Steve Cold, shady and damp, and when those winter winds from Antarctica blow there's only sea between it and us... brrr -- Cheers, Loki [ Brevity is the soul of wit. W.Shakespeare ] |
#88
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
"Ricky" wrote in message ... "Kay Easton" wrote A lot of plants have their seeds on the outside name another? pomengranates? Bethany |
#89
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
"Ricky" wrote in message ... "Kay Easton" wrote A lot of plants have their seeds on the outside name another? pomengranates? Bethany |
#90
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a truly baffling question about strawberries
"Ricky" wrote in message ... "Kay Easton" wrote A lot of plants have their seeds on the outside name another? pomengranates? Bethany |
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