Not all strawberries look the same

Discover the varieties and find the one you like best

10-Mar-2022 - Belgium

They are available virtually all year round in supermarkets and early bird stores. However, fruits that are in season always taste better. And this is even more true when it is such a special fruit as the strawberry. After a short winter break, the strawberry season is starting again in France. A season that will last until November thanks to the different varieties of strawberries.

The strawberry is a fruit with many benefits. In addition to its delicious taste, it has a low calorie content of about 38 kcal per 100 grams. This is due to the fact that the fruit consists mainly of water (about 90%). It is also an excellent source of vitamin C. However, one of its most important and least known properties is that it is a very good source of minerals, providing us with a large amount of potassium, calcium or iron (https://www.aprifel.com/fr/fiche-nutritionnelle/strawberry/).

All these benefits make the strawberry an ideal fruit to include in the 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day recommended by health authorities. This is what the #LongLifeChallenge is all about, the health challenge within the "CuTE Healthy - Cultivating a Healthy Europe with Fruits and vegetables from EUROPE" campaign and FruitVegetablesEUROPE, a campaign co-funded by the European Union that aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among the European population as part of an active lifestyle and in conjunction with physical activity.

4 strawberry varieties for every situation

March marks the start of strawberry season in France, and the many different varieties make it much easier to reach the goal of five times a day of fruits and vegetables. The main strawberry varieties grown in France are :

The "Gariguette" (from March to June).
The Gariguette is undoubtedly the most famous French strawberry. It is an early variety, available from March to mid-June, medium in size and bright vermilion. Its flesh is juicy and tender-melting. You will be delighted by its sweet and sour, very aromatic taste, which makes it a consumer favorite strawberry. It is recognizable by its slender, elongated shape.
The "Ciflorette" (from March to July).
The Ciflorette is an early variety, from March to July, with a very distinctive flavor. The Ciflorette has an elongated shape and a bright orange-red color. Its firm, juicy flesh and very mild flavor make it a very popular variety. Very aromatic, fragrant and deliciously sweet: it plays the sweetness card. It is no coincidence that it is often compared to a sweet.
"Charlotte" (from April to October)
Charlotte is a round-shaped, generous, fleshy and tender variety. It is easily recognized by its heart shape. It can be found on the shelves from April to October. It is also prized for its bright red color, rich flavor with hints of wild strawberry, and tender, juicy, sweet flesh. It is the favorite strawberry of children.
"Round strawberries" (from April to October).
They include several varieties: such as "Mara des bois", "Murano", "Clery", etc., which extend the season into autumn. They can be recognized by their generous shape and brick red color. In the mouth, their flesh is firm and juicy, offering a melt-in-the-mouth texture with a distinct sweet and sour taste. Their generous size makes them easy to spot. They can be eaten from mid-March to mid-November.

Olympic medalist Florent Manaudou is the ambassador of French strawberries at the #LONGLIFECHALLENGE

Who better to teach us that the most important competition in our lives is the competition to live better and healthier than a top athlete who is used to competing at the highest level. For this reason, swimmer and Olympic medalist Florent Manaudou has joined the #Longlifechallenge and encourages people to improve their lifestyle step by step by eating more fruits and vegetables: "A healthy, varied and quality diet is very important. Snacks like chips or cakes can be replaced by fruits and vegetables. To be healthier and live longer, people should exercise and eat fruits and vegetables."

The origin and source of these fruits are also very important for top athletes. "I eat fruits and vegetables pretty regularly, the amounts depend on the days and where I am. I try to eat local fruits, even though I enjoy them most at home. I think strawberries are my favorite fruit and for vegetables I would say green beans. Sometimes I make myself smoothies from fresh fruits, it's very important to regain energy, especially after a workout," assures Florent.

Tips on how to include strawberries in our daily diet.

The goal of the #Longlifechallenge is to encourage Europeans to consume more fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. To this end, various ideas and recipes are proposed that can be incorporated into our daily lives in a very simple way. Whether they are used as a splash of color in salads or as snacks or smoothies, you can find original ways to eat strawberries on the website https://longlifechallenge.eu/fr/recettes/, and you can learn more about French strawberries at https://fraisesdefrance.fr/.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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