Strawberry Annabelle (everbearing) - Fragaria ananassa

The Annabelle strawberry is a variety that produces high-quality strawberries: bright orange-red fruits, medium-sized from 13 to 15 g, soft, of good taste with a light aroma of wild strawberries, very sweet and slightly acidic. It is a productive variety that will yield from 700g to 1kg per plant. It is perpetual and regular in production from June to October. It is versatile in cooking; it can be consumed raw, in fruit salads, jams, sauces, etc. Anabelle is a creation by Angier, resulting from cross-breeding between the Gariguette and Sweet Charlie varieties.

Strawberries can be consumed in multiple ways: they can be eaten plain, with sugar or cream or sliced thinly and dried before being incorporated into muesli or yoghurt. If you have a bountiful harvest, consider making jams, sauces, pies, ice creams or sorbets. You can also freeze strawberries.

There are three categories of varieties:

- Wild strawberries or "4 seasons" strawberries, producing small fruits from June to October

- Non-everbearing varieties with large fruits, blooming once a year in spring, producing very large fruits around June

- Everbearing varieties with large fruits, blooming twice a year or continuously, producing large fruits from June until October

Indeed, the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, present during Roman times and in the Middle Ages, was crossed in the 18th century with a species brought back from Chile, allowing the obtaining, through successive selections, different varieties with large fruits.

The Strawberry is a hardy perennial belonging to the Rosaceae family. This variety has a sturdy habit, with evergreen trifoliate, oval and dentate leaves. It offers small white flowers with a golden centre that will transform into large red fruits. Botanically speaking, we refer to strawberries as pseudocarps, with the achenes (seeds) appearing on the surface under the epidermis.

For harvesting, pick the fruits as they ripen every 2 or 3 days, ideally in the morning. Strawberries are fragile; pick them with their calyx by pinching the stem 1 to 2 cm (0 to 1in) above it. The texture of the fruit is a good indicator of its ripeness. It should be firm and soft to the touch. Strawberries are rich in vitamins and minerals. They can cause urticating effects for some people as they stimulate the release of histamine in the body.