Strawberries are undoubtedly one the most favoured fruits for Greeks, so much so that it gives its flavour to ice creams, jams, chewing gums, jellies, pastes, tarts and salads. But is it really a fruit?
From a phytological point of view, no, since the real fruit is the many tiny “seeds” that we see on the surface of its flesh, which is the shell of the fruit.
Strawberries were the last to come to Greece, and as Gregory Paleologos mentions in the “Agricultural and Home Economy” of 1835, the strawberry is cultivated in many gardens of Athens and succeeds almost everywhere.
However, it is among the newly brought fruits to Greece, since immediately afterwards it had a name similar to pineapple.
The ancients either did not know the strawberries or did not name them at all, however the word hameikerasos, in Athenian, refers to the coumaras, according to Olive magazine.
The Romans knew wild strawberries, and called them fraga terrestria, “earthly coumaras”.
From this fragum, fragula, came the Italian fragola, which passed into Greek as fraoula.
Large areas cultivated with strawberries exist in Manolada, from where almost all of Greece is supplied. And we can find them all year round, but the sweetness of the summer is unrivalled.
READ MORE: HIPPOPHAES: The superfood berry consumed by Alexander the Great and his army.
