Intertribal Life Newspaper -

I love strawberries, both wild and cultivated. Wild ones are small but contain more flavor than those big, beautiful ones in the market. Fragaria chiloensis is a coastal strawberry that grows from California north to Alaska. The most common meadow berry east of the Mississippi is fragaria virginiana. In the 20th century, this variety and other wild native berries were pushed out of the commercial market and replaced with oversized, tasteless, modern hybrids.

There are over 600 varieties of this berry, which differ in size, flavor and texture. A cup of strawberries contains only 43 calories and is the most popular berry in the entire world! This could be due to the fact that they carry their seeds on the outside, so birds can gather them and take them to new places.

The seeds germinate by light rather than moisture, so they don't need to be covered by dirt to start growing. The Abenaki call the strawberry mskikoimins or "little grass berry."

Many Native people celebrate the strawberry throughout May and June with festivals and joyous gatherings. Native Americans use the wild strawberry as both an edible and medicinal plant. Before vitamin C was even known, strawberries were used as a cold remedy, like their sister cranberry. Bitters from the roots are used as a spring tonic and blood toner to rid the body of winter's toxins.

My own grandmother always kept a tin of wild strawberry leaves in the cupboard near her other tea, but Lord have mercy on you if you ever touched them without asking. She considered them sacred medicine. She lived to be 96.

Strawberry Bread

½ cup butter, softened

¾ cup maple sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1 egg

½ cup cornmeal, white or yellow

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

enough milk to make a stiff batter

1 cup wild strawberries, or store-bought, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg and beat until smooth. Add flour, nuts, baking powder and salt. Stir to blend and add enough milk to make a stiff batter. Gently fold in the strawberries and pour batter into a greased 8" x 8" baking dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Let cool before slicing. This bread is lovely warm, or it will keep up to four days. You could also freeze it.