Strawberry Cijosée (everbearing) - Fragaria ananassa

The Cijosée strawberry produces medium-sized, conical fruits, of good taste with a fine, juicy, and slightly acidic flesh. It is a perpetual variety that produces from June to October. Particularly hardy, it is a variety that can withstand temperatures of -15°C (5°F) and is therefore well-suited to the North and East of France as well as high altitudes. The Cijosée strawberries grow above the foliage, which makes harvesting easier; it easily produces runners, which is convenient for expanding your strawberry patch. It is resistant to Verticillium and has intermediate resistance to Phytophthora, Anthracnose, and Powdery Mildew.

Strawberries can be consumed in multiple ways: they can be eaten raw, with sugar, cream, or sliced thinly and dried before being added to muesli or yogurt. If you have a bountiful harvest, consider making jams, sauces, pies, ice cream, or sorbets. You can also freeze strawberries.

There are 3 categories of varieties:

- Wild strawberries or perpetual strawberries, producing small fruits from June to October

- Non-perpetual large fruit varieties, flowering once a year in spring, producing very large fruits around June

- Perpetual large fruit varieties, flowering twice a year or continuously, producing large fruits from June to October

In fact, the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, present during Roman times and the medieval period, was crossed in the 18th century with a species brought back from Chile, resulting in, through successive selections, different large fruit varieties.

The Strawberry is a hardy perennial belonging to the Rosaceae family. This variety has a stout habit, with persistent, ovate, and dentate trifoliate leaves. It produces small white flowers with a golden center that transform into large red fruits. Botanically speaking, strawberries are considered pseudocarps, with the achenes (seeds) appearing on the surface of the skin.

For harvesting, pick the fruits as they ripen, every 2 or 3 days, ideally in the morning. Strawberries are delicate, so pick them with their calyx by pinching the stem 1 to 2 cm (0 to 1in) above it. The texture of the fruit is a good indicator of its ripeness. It should be firm and slightly yielding to the touch. Strawberries are rich in vitamins and minerals. They can cause skin irritation for some individuals as they stimulate the release of histamine in the body.