Even in ancient times, it was an attribute of the goddesses of love and a symbol of sensual pleasure. But even without erotic ulterior motives, she is worth a sin to her lovers: namely, to nibble on her until nothing fits into the strawberry mouth, which can now be understood literally. With the more reliable rays of sunshine of late spring and early summer, the big appearance of the strawberries begins, whereby the shiny red sweet fruits are botanically not berries at all, but belong to the collective nut fruits.

Christian Riethmüller

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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On top of that, the strawberry is a false fruit, as its true fruits are the small grains on the fruiting bodies. However, such details are likely to be indifferent to consumers, who consume an average of about 3.7 kilograms of strawberries a year in Germany. Does he know that he is enjoying a fruit that is still relatively young from a historical point of view? Although strawberries have probably played a role in people's diets since the Stone Age, the fruits of the wild strawberries common in Europe were small. It was not until the 17th century with the scarlet strawberry and in the 18th century with the Chile strawberry that two large-fruited American species arrived in Europe. From their crossing, the garden strawberry was created around 1750 in Brittany, the foremother of most of the varieties cultivated today.

About a thousand varieties have been born from this first garden strawberry so far. Many have long since disappeared, but new ones are added every year because people are constantly experimenting with the plant, wanting to optimize it for different soils and different climates, arming it against diseases and, of course, making its fruits appear as attractive as possible: even bigger, even more aromatic.

Andreas Schneider, who runs the Obsthof am Steinberg in Frankfurt's Nieder-Erlenbach district, is aware of this joy of experimentation and shares it. "On average, we have 15 different varieties per year, of which we grow twelve as main varieties and test the rest in small quantities," reports Schneider, who informs himself about new breeds through trade publications and exchanges. "We mainly have loess loam soils," says Schneider, citing an important criterion in the selection of test varieties, but is also not averse to a gimmick. A few years ago, he experimented with white strawberries, a Dresden breed. These fruits taste extremely delicate, but have a hard time selling because the thought immediately arises that the berries are unripe. "And strawberries don't ripen, so customers keep their hands off them. Only the star gastronomy has taken part, but that is of course manageable in terms of quantity," says Schneider, who also inspires the large audience with another Dresden breed: Mieze Schindler is the name of this now almost hundred-year-old breed by Otto Schindler, which the horticultural teacher had named Mieze in honor of his wife. "This strawberry is a diva and requires a lot of care. On the other hand, it is more aromatic than almost any other," Schneider enthuses about the fruit, which presents itself deep red and attracts its fans to the fruit farm in June, where they stock up on the variety. The good kitty is not particularly storable and therefore not available in the supermarket and only to a very limited extent in retail.

It would be more likely to find Schneider's most important cultivar there, the Mara des Bois, a French breed and, to the delight of the fruit grower, a remontant variety, i.e. a variety that blooms and bears several times. Like the Mieze Schindler variety, the Mara de Bois also has an intense wild strawberry aroma, whereby the aroma of strawberries is again a science in itself. More than 900 chemical substances have now been detected in strawberries, so the sense of taste can also suggest something supernatural.

In order to emphasize these aromas, however, a warming ray of sunshine is never wrong, which is why Schneider does not pack his strawberries under waste-causing foils, but harvests them with a week's delay if necessary. The plants are protected only by a close-meshed net that keeps both animals and the wind away.

For picking (also for self-pickers), the nets are knocked aside, as well as during the strawberry hikes that Schneider regularly offers (dates under www.obsthof-am-steinberg.de) and during which at least six different varieties are tasted and seduce to sin.

On May 27, the strawberry picker starts at the fruit farm on the Steinberg, daily from 9 a.m. to 18 p.m. and while stocks last.

The first strawberry hike is scheduled for May 28th. It starts at 10 a.m., tickets are available via the website.