Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means. Edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition. Accordingly, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, some have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that are sweet or sour, edible in the raw state, such as apples, grapes, lemons and strawberries. On the other hand, in botanical usage, "fruit" includes many structures that are not called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels and wheat grains; the section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body. Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications. In culinary terminology, a fruit is any sweet-tasting plant part a botanical fruit.
However, in botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed, a seed is a ripened ovule. Examples of culinary "vegetables" and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, eggplant, sweet pepper, tomato. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits. In contrast, rhubarb is referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible, edible gymnosperm seeds are given fruit names, e.g. ginkgo nuts and pine nuts. Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat, is a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is thin and is fused to the seed coat, so all of the edible grain is a seed; the outer edible layer, is the pericarp, formed from the ovary and surrounding the seeds, although in some species other tissues contribute to or form the edible portion. The pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, the epicarp and endocarp.
Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked. A fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, the gynoecium of the flower forms all or part of the fruit. Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the egg cell. After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds; the ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule and two sperm are transferred from the pollen to the megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte one of the two sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process; the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo.
As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy, or form a hard outer covering. In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules; the pericarp is differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp and endocarp. In some fruits simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower, fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off; when such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms. There are three general modes of fruit development: Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels, they are the simplest fruits. Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium having two or more carpels fused together.
Multiple fruits form from many different flowers. Plant scientists have grouped fruits into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, composite or multiple fruits; the groupings are not evolutionarily relevant, since many diverse plant taxa may be in the same group, but reflect how the flower organs are arranged and how the fruits develop. Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy, result from the ripening of a simple or compound ovary in a flower with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be either dehiscent, or indehiscent. Types of dry, simple fruits, examples of each, include: achene – most seen in aggregate fruits capsule – caryopsis – cypsela – an achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum. Fibrous drupe – follicle – is formed from a single carpel, opens by one suture
Flourless chocolate cake
A flourless chocolate cake is a dense "fallen" cake made from an aerated chocolate custard. Whole eggs are whipped to a foam in a manner similar to a Génoise cake, using low heat from the melted chocolate to stabilize the protein matrix; the resulting batter contains only the starch present in the chocolate, is baked in a bain-marie. Flourless chocolate cake is a popular dessert in gluten-free diets. A similar cake with little or no flour in which the egg matrix is allowed to collapse is known as "fallen" or "molten" chocolate cake and was popularized by, among others, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurants. Torta caprese, originating from the Italian island of Capri, is a traditional flourless chocolate cake popular in that region. Chocolate mousse Cheesecake Cake Torte List of custard desserts List of desserts Food portal Editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine, Baking Illustrated, Brookline, MA: America's Test Kitchen, 2004, ISBN 0-936184-75-2
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream, whipped by a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla. Whipped cream is called Chantilly cream or crème chantilly. Whipped cream is a culinary colloid produced. Air is incorporated into cream containing at least 35% fat by one of two processes: mechanical agitation with a high-speed blade or whip, or injecting a gas under high pressure, which expands when released from pressurized containment. During whipping coalesced fat molecules create a stabilized network which traps air bubbles; the resulting colloid is double the volume of the original cream. If, the whipping is continued, the fat droplets will stick together destroying the colloid and forming butter. Lower-fat cream does not whip well. Cream is whipped with a whisk, an electric or hand mixer, or a food processor. Results are best when ingredients are cold. Whipped cream is flavored with sugar, coffee, orange, so on. Many 19th-century recipes recommend adding gum tragacanth to stabilize whipped cream.
Various other substances, including gelatin and diphosphate, are used in commercial stabilizers. Whipped cream may be made in a whipping siphon using nitrous oxide as the gas, as carbon dioxide tends to give a sour taste; the siphon may be sold as a pre-pressurized retail package. The gas dissolves in the butterfat under pressure, when the pressure is released, produces bubbles and thus whipped cream. Whipped cream sweetened and aromatised, was popular in the 16th century, with recipes in the writings of Cristoforo di Messisbugo, Bartolomeo Scappi, Lancelot de Casteau, it was called cream snow. A 1545 English recipe, "A Dyschefull of Snow", includes whipped egg whites as well, is flavored with rosewater and sugar. In these recipes, until the end of the 19th century separated cream is whipped with willow or rush branches, the resulting foam on the surface would from time to time be skimmed off and drained, a process taking an hour or more. By the end of the 19th century, centrifuge-separated, high-fat cream made it much faster and easier to make whipped cream.
The French name crème fouettée'whipped cream' is attested in 1629, the English name "whipped cream" in 1673. The name "snow cream" continued to be used in the 17th century. Various desserts consisting of whipped cream in pyramidal shapes with coffee, chocolate, so on either in the mixture or poured on top were called crème en mousse'cream in a foam', crème fouettée, crème mousseuse'foamy cream', mousse'foam', fromage à la Chantilly'Chantilly-style molded cream', as early as 1768. Modern mousses, including mousse au chocolat, are a continuation of this tradition. Cream whipped in a whipping siphon with nitrous oxide was invented in the 1930s by both Charles Getz, working with G. Frederick Smith, Marshall Reinecke. Both filed patents, which were litigated; the Getz patents were deemed invalid, but were upheld on appeal. Crème Chantilly is another name for whipped cream; the difference between "whipped cream" and "crème Chantilly" is not systematic. Some authors distinguish between the two, with crème Chantilly being sweetened, whipped cream not.
However, most authors treat the two as synonyms, with both being sweetened, neither being sweetened, or treating sweetening as optional. Many authors use only one of the two names, so it is not clear if they distinguish the two; the invention of crème Chantilly is credited incorrectly, without evidence, to François Vatel, maître d'hôtel at the Château de Chantilly in the mid-17th century. But the name Chantilly is first connected with whipped cream in the mid-18th century, around the time that the Baronne d'Oberkirch praised the "cream" served at a lunch at the Hameau de Chantilly—but did not say what it was, or call it Chantilly cream; the names "crème Chantilly", "crème de Chantilly", "crème à la Chantilly", or "crème fouettée à la Chantilly" only become common in the 19th century. In 1806, the first edition of Viard's Cuisinier Impérial mentions neither "whipped" nor "Chantilly" cream, but the 1820 edition mentions both; the name Chantilly was used because the château had become a symbol of refined food.
Imitations of whipped cream sold under the name whipped topping or squirty cream, are commercially available. They may be used for various reasons: To exclude dairy ingredients: for milk allergies for vegan diets for religious reasons, such as dietary laws forbidding mixing meat with dairy To provide extended shelf life. To reduce the price—though some popular brands cost twice as much as whipped cream. For convenience. Whipped topping contains some mixture of hydrogenated oil, sweeteners and stabilizers and emulsifiers added to prevent syneresis, similar to margarine instead of the butter fat in the cream used in whipped cream. See artificial cream. Whipped cream or crème Chantilly is a popular topping for fruit and desserts such as pie, ice cream, cakes, waffles, hot chocolate, cheesecakes and puddings, it is served on coffee in the Viennese coffee house tradition, where coffee with whipped cream is known as Melange mit Schlagobers. Whipped cream is used as an ingredient in
Herb
In general use, herbs are plants with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use distinguishes herbs from spices. Herbs refers to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant, while spices are dried and produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, bark and fruits. Herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, in some cases, spiritual. General usage of the term "herb" differs between medicinal herbs; the word "herb" is pronounced in Commonwealth English, but is common among North American English speakers and those from other regions where h-dropping occurs. In botany, the word "herb" is used as a synonym for "herbaceous plant". In botany, the term herb refers to a herbaceous plant, defined as a small, seed-bearing plant without a woody stem in which all aerial parts die back to the ground at the end of each growing season; the term refers to perennials, although herbaceous plants can be annuals, or biennials.
This term is in contrast to trees which possess a woody stem. Shrubs and trees are defined in terms of size, where shrubs are less than 10 meters tall, trees may grow over 10 meters; the word herbaceous is derived from Latin herbāceus meaning "grassy", from herba "grass, herb". Another sense of the term herb can refer to a much larger range of plants, with culinary, therapeutic or other uses. For example, some of the most described herbs such as Sage and Lavender would be excluded from the botanical definition of a herb as they do not die down each year, they possess woody stems. In the wider sense, herbs may be herbaceous perennials but trees, shrubs, lianas, mosses, algae and fungi. Herbalism can utilize not just stems and leaves but fruit, roots and gums; therefore one suggested definition of a herb is a plant, of use to humans, although this definition is problematic since it could cover a great many plants that are not described as herbs. Ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus divided the plant world into trees and herbs.
Herbs came to be considered in namely pot herbs, sweet herbs and salad herbs. During the seventeenth century as selective breeding changed the plants size and flavor away from the wild plant, pot herbs began to be referred to as vegetables as they were no longer considered only suitable for the pot. Culinary herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that, like spices, they are used in small amounts and provide flavor rather than substance to food. Herbs can be perennials such as thyme, sage or lavender, biennials such as parsley, or annuals like basil. Perennial herbs can be shrubs such as rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis, or trees such as bay laurel, Laurus nobilis – this contrasts with botanical herbs, which by definition cannot be woody plants; some plants are used as both herbs and spices, such as dill weed and dill seed or coriander leaves and seeds. There are some herbs, such as those in the mint family, that are used for both culinary and medicinal purposes. Emperor Charlemagne compiled a list of 74 different herbs.
The connection between herbs and health is important in the European Middle Ages--The Forme of Cury promotes extensive use of herbs, including in salads, claims in its preface "the assent and advisement of the masters of physic and philosophy in the King's Court". Some herbs can be infused in boiling water to make herbal teas; the dried leaves, flowers or seeds are used, or fresh herbs are used. Herbal teas tend to made from aromatic herbs, may not contain tannins or caffeine, are not mixed with milk. Common examples include mint tea. Herbal teas are used as a source of relaxation or can be associated with rituals. Herbs were used in prehistoric medicine; as far back as 5000 BCE, evidence that Sumerians used herbs in medicine was inscribed on cuneiform. In 162 CE, the physician Galen was known for concocting complicated herbal remedies that contained up to 100 ingredients; some plants contain phytochemicals. There may be some effects when consumed in the small levels that typify culinary "spicing", some herbs are toxic in larger quantities.
For instance, some types of herbal extract, such as the extract of St. John's-wort or of kava can be used for medical purposes to relieve depression and stress. However, large amounts of these herbs may lead to toxic overload that may involve complications, some of a serious nature, should be used with caution. Complications can arise when being taken with some prescription medicines. Herbs have long been used as the basis of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, with usage dating as far back as the first century CE and far before. In India, the Ayurveda medicinal system is based on herbs. Medicinal use of herbs in Western cultures has its roots in the Hippocratic elemental healing system, based on a quaternary elemental healing metaphor. Famous herbalist of the Western tradition include Avicenna, Paracelsus and the botanically inclined Eclectic physicians of 19th
Cheese
Cheese is a dairy product derived from milk, produced in a wide range of flavors and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk the milk of cows, goats, or sheep. During production, the milk is acidified, adding the enzyme rennet causes coagulation; the solids are pressed into final form. Some cheeses have molds throughout. Most cheeses melt at cooking temperature. Over a thousand types of cheese from various countries are produced, their styles and flavors depend on the origin of the milk, whether they have been pasteurized, the butterfat content, the bacteria and mold, the processing, aging. Herbs, spices, or wood smoke may be used as flavoring agents; the yellow to red color of many cheeses, such as Red Leicester, is produced by adding annatto. Other ingredients may be added to some cheeses, such as black pepper, chives or cranberries. For a few cheeses, the milk is curdled by adding acids such as lemon juice. Most cheeses are acidified to a lesser degree by bacteria, which turn milk sugars into lactic acid the addition of rennet completes the curdling.
Vegetarian alternatives to rennet are available. Cheesemakers near a dairy region may benefit from fresher, lower-priced milk, lower shipping costs. Cheese is valued for its portability, long life, high content of fat, protein and phosphorus. Cheese is more compact and has a longer shelf life than milk, although how long a cheese will keep depends on the type of cheese. Speaking, hard cheeses, such as Parmesan last longer than soft cheeses, such as Brie or goat's milk cheese; the long storage life of some cheeses when encased in a protective rind, allows selling when markets are favorable. There is some debate as to the best way to store cheese, but some experts say that wrapping it in cheese paper provides optimal results. Cheese paper is coated in a porous plastic on the inside, the outside has a layer of wax; this specific combination of plastic on the inside and wax on the outside protects the cheese by allowing condensation on the cheese to be wicked away while preventing moisture from within the cheese escaping.
A specialist seller of cheese is sometimes known as a cheesemonger. Becoming an expert in this field requires some formal education and years of tasting and hands-on experience, much like becoming an expert in wine or cuisine; the cheesemonger is responsible for all aspects of the cheese inventory: selecting the cheese menu, receiving and ripening. The word cheese comes from Latin caseus, from which the modern word casein is derived; the earliest source is from the proto-Indo-European root *kwat-, which means "to ferment, become sour". The word cheese comes from cīese or cēse. Similar words are shared by other West Germanic languages—West Frisian tsiis, Dutch kaas, German Käse, Old High German chāsi—all from the reconstructed West-Germanic form *kāsī, which in turn is an early borrowing from Latin; the Online Etymological Dictionary states that "cheese" comes from "Old English cyse, cese...from West Germanic *kasjus, from Latin caseus "cheese"." The Online Etymological Dictionary states. Compare fromage.
Old Norse ostr, Danish ost, Swedish ost are related to Latin ius "broth, juice.'"When the Romans began to make hard cheeses for their legionaries' supplies, a new word started to be used: formaticum, from caseus formatus, or "molded cheese". It is from this word that the French fromage, standard Italian formaggio, Catalan formatge, Breton fourmaj, Occitan fromatge are derived. Of the Romance languages, Portuguese, Romanian and Southern Italian dialects use words derived from caseus; the word cheese itself is employed in a sense that means "molded" or "formed". Head cheese uses the word in this sense; the term "cheese" is used as a noun and adjective in a number of figurative expressions. Cheese is an ancient food. There is no conclusive evidence indicating where cheesemaking originated, whether in Europe, Central Asia or the Middle East, but the practice had spread within Europe prior to Roman times and, according to Pliny the Elder, had become a sophisticated enterprise by the time the Roman Empire came into being.
Earliest proposed dates for the origin of cheesemaking range from around 8000 BCE, when sheep were first domesticated. Since animal skins and inflated internal organs have, since ancient times, provided storage vessels for a range of foodstuffs, it is probable that the process of cheese making was discovered accidentally by storing milk in a container made from the stomach of an animal, resulting in the milk being turned to curd and whey by the rennet from the stomach. There is a legend—wit
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, the seeds of berries from certain Coffea species. The genus Coffea is native to tropical Africa and Madagascar, the Comoros, Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Coffee plants are now cultivated in over 70 countries in the equatorial regions of the Americas, Southeast Asia, Indian subcontinent, Africa; the two most grown are C. arabica and C. robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked and dried. Dried coffee seeds are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and brewed with near-boiling water to produce the beverage known as coffee. Coffee is darkly colored, bitter acidic and has a stimulating effect in humans due to its caffeine content, it is one of the most popular drinks in the world, it can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. It is served hot, although iced coffee is a popular alternative. Clinical studies indicate that moderate coffee consumption is benign or mildly beneficial in healthy adults, with continuing research on whether long-term consumption lowers the risk of some diseases, although those long-term studies are of poor quality.
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in modern-day Yemen in southern Arabia in the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines. It was here in Arabia that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a similar way to how it is now prepared, but the coffee seeds had to be first exported from East Africa to Yemen, as the Coffea arabica plant is thought to have been indigenous to the former. The Yemenis began to cultivate the seed. By the 16th century, the drink had reached Persia and North Africa. From there, it spread to the rest of the world; as of 2016, Brazil was the leading grower of producing one-third of the world total. Coffee is a major export commodity, it is one of the most valuable commodities exported by developing countries. Green, unroasted coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world; some controversy has been associated with coffee cultivation and the way developed countries trade with developing nations, as well as the impact on the environment with regards to the clearing of land for coffee-growing and water use.
The markets for fair trade and organic coffee are expanding, notably in the USA. The word coffee appears to have derived from the name of the region where coffee beans were first used by a herder in the 6th or 9th century: kaffa derived from Kaffa Province, the name of the region in ancient Abyssinia; the word "coffee" entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch koffie, borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, borrowed in turn from the Arabic qahwah. The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine whose etymology is given by Arab lexicographers as deriving from the verb qahiya, "to lack hunger", in reference to the drink's reputation as an appetite suppressant, it has been proposed that the source may be the Proto-Central Semitic root q-h-h meaning "dark". The term "coffee pot" dates from 1705; the expression "coffee break" was first attested in 1952. According to legend, ancestors of today's Oromo people in a region of Kaffa in Ethiopia were believed to have been the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee plant.
However, there is no direct evidence, found earlier than the 15th century indicating where in Africa coffee first grew or who among the native populations might have used it as a stimulant. The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee when he noticed how excited his goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is apocryphal. Other accounts attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheikh Omar. According to an ancient chronicle, known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was once exiled from Mocha in Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab. Starving, Omar found them to be bitter, he tried roasting the seeds to improve the flavor. He tried boiling them to soften the seed, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid. Upon drinking the liquid Omar was sustained for days; as stories of this "miracle drug" reached Mocha, Omar was made a saint. The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the 15th century in the accounts of Ahmed al-Ghaffar in Yemen.
It was here in Arabia that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed, in a similar way to how it is prepared now. Coffee was used by Sufi circles to stay awake for their religious rituals. Accounts differ on the origin of the coffee plant prior to its appearance in Yemen. From Ethiopia, coffee could have been introduced to Yemen via trade across the Red Sea. One account credits Muhammad Ibn Sa'd for bringing the beverage to Aden from the African coast. Other early accounts say Ali ben Omar of the Shadhili Sufi order was the first to introduce coffee to Arabia. According to al Shardi, Ali ben Omar may have encountered coffee during his stay with the Adal king Sadadin's companions in 1401. Famous 16th-century Islamic scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami notes in his
Strawberry
The garden strawberry is a grown hybrid species of the genus Fragaria, collectively known as the strawberries. It is cultivated worldwide for its fruit; the fruit is appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, sweetness. It is consumed in large quantities, either fresh or in such prepared foods as preserves, pies, ice creams and chocolates. Artificial strawberry flavorings and aromas are widely used in many products like lip gloss, hand sanitizers and many others; the garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America and Fragaria chiloensis, brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. Cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa have replaced, in commercial production, the woodland strawberry, the first strawberry species cultivated in the early 17th century; the strawberry is not, from a botanical point of view, a berry. Technically, it is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries.
Each apparent "seed" on the outside of the fruit is one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it. In 2016, world production of strawberries was 9.2 million tonnes, led by China with 41% of the total. The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany, during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species were the common source of the fruit; the strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use. The French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest in the 14th century. Charles V, France's king from 1364 to 1380, had 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden. In the early 15th century western European monks were using the wild strawberry in their illuminated manuscripts; the strawberry is found in Italian and German art, in English miniatures. The entire strawberry plant was used to treat depressive illnesses. By the 16th century, references of cultivation of the strawberry became more common.
People began using it for its supposed medicinal properties and botanists began naming the different species. In England the demand for regular strawberry farming had increased by the mid-16th century; the combination of strawberries and cream was created by Thomas Wolsey in the court of King Henry VIII. Instructions for growing and harvesting strawberries showed up in writing in 1578. By the end of the 16th century three European species had been cited: F. vesca, F. moschata, F. viridis. The garden strawberry was transplanted from the forests and the plants would be propagated asexually by cutting off the runners. Two subspecies of F. vesca were identified: F. sylvestris alba and F. sylvestris semperflorens. The introduction of F. virginiana from Eastern North America to Europe in the 17th century is an important part of history because this species gave rise to the modern strawberry. The new species spread through the continent and did not become appreciated until the end of the 18th century.
When a French excursion journeyed to Chile in 1712, it introduced the North American strawberry plant with female flowers that resulted in the common strawberry that we have today. The Mapuche and Huilliche Indians of Chile cultivated the female strawberry species until 1551, when the Spanish came to conquer the land. In 1765, a European explorer recorded the cultivation of the Chilean strawberry. At first introduction to Europe, the plants produced no fruit, it was discovered in 1766 that the female plants could only be pollinated by plants that produced large fruit: F. moschata, F. virginiana, F. ananassa. This is when the Europeans became aware that plants had the ability to produce male-only or female-only flowers; as more large-fruit producing plants were cultivated the Chilean strawberry decreased in population in Europe, except for around Brest where the Chilean strawberry thrived. The decline of the Chilean strawberry was caused by F. ananassa. Strawberry cultivars vary in size, flavor, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant.
On average, a strawberry has about 200 seeds on its external membrane. Some vary in foliage, some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases, the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female. For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and, in general, distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models—annual plasticulture, or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. Greenhouses produce a small amount of strawberries during the off season; the bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, irrigation tubing is run underneath. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, in order to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development.
At the end of the harvest season, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground. Because strawberry plants more than a year or two old begin to decline in productivity and fruit quality, this system of replacing the plants each year allows for improved yields and denser plantings. However, because it requires a longer growing season to allow for estab
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