Strawberry Fun Facts

So the weather is not as warm as I had hoped it would be by now. I guess there is a reason for April showers...

Even though the weather has been rather dreary, I have begun to see and hear a lot about strawberries. I have noticed that in the dinning halls a dessert staple has become some form of strawberry shortcake; whether it be actually strawberries ontop of shortcake or a pudding variation. With all this strawberry shortcake around, I figured I would look up the origins of this treat.

I had a little bit of trouble trying to look up the origin of this dessert, but instead I did find a lot of fun facts about strawberries that I did not know at all! So maybe my shortcake origin post will be soon..but for now hopefully you'll find these facts interesting!

1) The word strawberry comes from "strewn berry" because the strawberry looks as though it has been strewn about the plant.

2) They are not berries or fruits! They are technically the enlarged end of the plant's stamen.

3) There are about 200 seeds on each berry

4) They have been used for sunburns, discolored teeth, digestion and gout.

5) In medevial dinners, they represented peace, prosperity, and perfection.

[all facts were taken from http://nashville.about.com/cs/festivalsnmore/a/aa051303a_3.htm]

I was a little shocked to hear about some of these facts, but I guess they could always be used as an ice breaker!

note to self: file under useless information that could come up in a triva game....