Legends and Lore of Strawberries: In provincial France, strawberries were regarded as an aphrodisiac. Newlyweds were served always served a cold strawberry soup. The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of Love, because of its heart shapes and red color. Have you every eaten a double strawberry? Legend says that if you break the strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will soon fall in love with each other. In parts of Bavaria, people still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and abundance of milk in return. Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII had a strawberry shaped birthmark on her neck, which some claimed proved she was a witch. To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals. The strawberry, a member of the rose family, is unique in that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside. Many medicinal uses were claimed for the wild strawberry, its leaves and root. Did you know that the American Indians were actually cultivating strawberries in 1643? They crushed the strawberries into a mortar, mixing them with meal to make a strawberry bread. By the 1800s, commercial strawberries had been cultivated. Strawberries are the leading small fruit crop in the United States today. They are farmed from Florida to Alaska, with the largest strawberry-growing centers located in California, Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee.
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