Strawberry Manille - Fragaria ananassa

The 'Manille' Strawberry is a non-remontant variety, producing large round fruits, bright red in colour. The strawberries, with a flavour similar to the 'Mara des Bois' variety, are firm and sweet. The Manila variety is an early variety, fruiting from May onwards. It has good disease resistance. It is a recent variety from breeder Marionnet. Planting is preferably done in autumn for a harvest in May and June.

The strawberry can be consumed in multiple ways: it can be eaten raw, with sugar, cream, or sliced thinly and dried before being incorporated into muesli or yogurt. If you have a plentiful harvest, consider making jams, coulis, pies, ice cream, or sorbets. You can also freeze strawberries.

There are 3 categories of varieties:

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

- Non-perpetual varieties with large fruits, like the 'Manille' variety, flowering only once a year in spring, producing very large fruits around June

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

Indeed, the wild strawberry or woodland strawberry, present during Roman times and the medieval period, was crossed in the 18th century with a species brought from Chile, allowing for the selection of different varieties with large fruits through successive breeding.

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

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