Wild Strawberry Reine des Vallées - Fragaria vesca

The 'Reine des Vallées' Strawberry is a variety of wild strawberries, producing small, elongated, and very tasty red fruits. They can be enjoyed fresh or on a tart to fully appreciate their exceptional flavour. This variety is perpetual, producing from June to October. It does not produce stolons. Planting is preferably done in autumn for a harvest from June to October.

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

There are three categories of varieties:

- wild strawberries or all-season strawberries, like the 'Reine des Vallées' variety, producing small fruits from June to October

- non-perpetual varieties with large fruits, flowering once a year in spring and producing very large fruits around June

- perpetual varieties with large fruits, flowering twice a year or continuously, producing large fruits from June to October

Indeed, the wild strawberry, present during Roman times and the medieval period, was crossed in the 18th century with a species taken from Chile, resulting in different varieties with large fruits through successive selections.

The Strawberry is a hardy perennial belonging to the Rosaceae family. This variety has a sturdy habit, with persistent, ovate, and dentate trifoliate leaves. It produces small white flowers with golden hearts that transform into large red fruits. Botanically speaking, we refer to strawberries as pseudocarps, with the achenes (seeds) visible under the epidermis.

For harvesting, pick the fruits as they ripen, approximately every 2 or 3 days, ideally in the morning. Strawberries are delicate, so pick them with their peduncle by pinching the stem about 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 reactions in some people as they stimulate the release of histamine in the body.