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Chocolate & Strawberries May Have Just Gotten Better, Or Perhaps Not

Two teams of researchers are reporting success in sequencing the genomes for the strawberry and cocoa. 

An international team of 70 researchers collaborated to sequence the genome of a woodland strawberry while a separate international team has successfully decoded the genome for Criollo, an expensive variety of cocoa used to make fine chocolate.  Both teams were funded by a mixture of academic, U.S. government and industry sources and their results are published in the journal Nature Genetics.

The research offers the potential to create new varieties of strawberry and cocoa that will be more disease resistant, weather tolerant, flavorful and nutritious, or so say the researchers. 

While I'm supportive of scientific research, and undecided about the benefits and risks of genetic modification of food, I'm definitely concerned about the practical implementation of such research.  If the history of the last 30 years is any guide, the most likely outcome of genetic tinkering is likely to be new varieties that are tailored to meet today's commercial requirements -- less perishable, easier to ship, visually more appealing --not varieties that are better tasting or are more nutritious. 

It will probably take five to ten years before strawberries modified based on this research appear on grocery store shelves, so it will be a long-time before we know how these discoveries play out in the marketplace.

Strawberries: A Look At Strawberries And Their Alpine Cousins

Two types of Strawberries Compared

This year I'm growing three pots of strawberries.  Two are ever bearing varieties purchased at the garden store this earlier this year and one is an Alpine variety (Mignonette) I planted from seed last year.

What most of us call "strawberries" are varieties that have been bred to produce large sized fruits -- an inch or more in length.  These are the kind you are most likely to find as plants at the garden center and they are absolutely the ones that you'll buy as berries for consumption at a farmers markets or grocery store.

Growing these strawberries in containers is not particularly difficult and they tend to produce nice sized crops of berries.  The "June Bearing" varieties produce one large crop of berries in the late spring/early summer.  "Everbearing" varieties tend to produce two, smaller crops of berries during the summer.  Finally, "Day Neutral" varieties produce berries consistently throughout the growing season.

There are many different varieties of June, Everbearing, and Day Neutral strawberries to choose from. These varieties have been bred to produce different characteristics, so you'll find some that are sweeter, some larger or more red,  some that have a longer shelf life, or are better for freezing or making jam.  Common varieties include Albion, Earliglow, Seascape, Allstar and Winona.

Alpine strawberries or Fraises du bois (strawberry of the woods in French) are very different from what we normally think of as a strawberry.  Alpine berry plants produce tiny strawberries -- in fact, smaller than a raspberry. 

I would almost classify alpine strawberries as ornamental, except for one small detail -- they produce fruits that have an intense strawberry flavor that is unlike other types of strawberries.  It's a gourmet taste experience, but If you grow an Alpine strawberry variety, you will probably use the berries to top ice cream or some other dessert, as you will not likely have enough to make a dessert of the berries alone.

Given the low yields, Alpine strawberries are not a commercially viable crop for farmers; if you want to try them, you'll need to grow them for yourself.  You can sometimes find Alpine Strawberry plants at a garden center or you can order them through an online retailers as either plants or seeds.

I generally don't shy away from growing a particular variety of vegetable or fruit just because it has a lower yield.  However, in the case of Alpine strawberries, the yield is so very low, that I can't recommend these to most folks. Unless you have alot of space in your garden, or are just dying to try these gourmet Alpine beauties, I would recommend sticking with the more common, larger strawberry types.