Heirloom Foods – Organic Strawberries, Frozen

Size

±250g

Ingredients

Freshly Harvested Organic Strawberries

• Organically grown
• Locally grown
• No synthetic pesticides
• No synthetic herbicides
• No synthetic fertilisers
• No GMOs
• Non-irradiated
• No preservatives

Directions to Use

Use directly into smoothies. Strawberries are also delicious in cakes, muffins, pancakes, tarts and other desserts, or cooked into homemade sauces, compotes and preserves.

What Makes Strawberries Red?

As strawberries ripen, their green colour gradually gives way to the characteristic red of ripe fruit. This colour comes largely from anthocyanins, naturally occurring pigments belonging to the flavonoid family.

Anthocyanins also contribute red, purple and blue colours to many other plant foods, including raspberries, blueberries, red cabbage and purple potatoes.

Strawberries contain other polyphenols as well, including ellagitannins and ellagic-acid-related compounds. Researchers continue to investigate how these compounds, together with the fruit’s fibre, vitamins and other constituents, may contribute to the health effects associated with fruit-rich diets.

Strawberry Fibre and Heavy Metals – An Interesting Laboratory Finding

Strawberry fibre has also been the subject of some unusual laboratory research.

In 2014, Mike Adams of the Natural News Forensic Food Lab tested a range of foods for their ability to capture mercury under simulated digestive conditions. His experimental method combined a simulated gastric environment with ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) analysis. In this laboratory model, strawberries reportedly captured approximately 95% of the added mercury, placing them among the strongest mercury-binding foods tested.

Adams proposed that naturally occurring insoluble fibre and pectin-like structures in foods such as strawberries may bind or trap metal ions within the digestive environment.

You can read more about the experiment and results in Mike Adams’ original report on dietary mercury and food binding.

Strawberry vs Raspberry – What’s the Difference?

Both belong to the rose family, but their fruits develop differently.

A raspberry consists of numerous small fleshy drupelets clustered together. Each drupelet develops from a separate ovary within one flower.

A strawberry is even more unusual. The juicy red portion we enjoy isn’t actually the botanical fruit. It develops mainly from the flower’s enlarged receptacle.

And those tiny dots covering its surface? They aren’t technically seeds.

Did You Know?

The “seeds” are actually tiny fruits

Each little speck on the outside of a strawberry is called an achene. An achene is a small, dry fruit, and the actual seed is contained inside it. A single strawberry therefore carries many individual fruits across its surface.

For this reason, botanists describe strawberries as aggregate accessory fruits, rather than true berries.

Strawberries aren’t botanical berries – but tomatoes are

Botanical terminology can be wonderfully surprising. Despite its name, a strawberry isn’t a true berry. Yet a tomato, which we normally think of as a vegetable, is botanically a berry.

Meanwhile, raspberries and blackberries aren’t true berries either – they’re aggregate fruits made from clusters of drupelets.

Why strawberries are so delicate

Unlike oranges or apples, strawberries don’t have a thick protective peel. Their soft tissues also contain plenty of moisture, which makes them particularly vulnerable to bruising and deterioration.