Wild Strawberry
Fragaria vesca
Small red berries full of flavour, with white flowers and leaves in threes.
How to recognise it
Wild strawberry is a low plant. Its long-stalked leaves have three toothed leaflets, bright green and slightly glossy. It spreads by runners that root along the ground. The end tooth of each leaflet is as long as its neighbours, or longer. The flowers are white, with five rounded petals and a yellow centre. The fruit is a small red cone with tiny seeds on the surface, hanging from a thin stalk. Barren strawberry (Potentilla sterilis) flowers earlier. It has gaps between its notched petals and an end tooth shorter than its neighbours. It has no fleshy fruit. Mock strawberry (Potentilla indica) has yellow flowers and round, spongy, tasteless berries.
Where it grows
Look at woodland edges and in clearings, on sunny banks and path sides, at hedgerow bases and in old grassland. It often grows on dry, stony or lime-rich soil, from the lowlands into the mountains across Europe. In the US it grows in open woods and clearings in the north and in the western mountains. The larger Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) is the usual wild strawberry of fields and meadows there.
When
It flowers from April. In southern Europe the berries ripen from late May and elsewhere from June. The plants keep fruiting through the summer. In the mountains and the north they go on into August.
Picking
Pick only fully red berries by pinching the stalk. Never pull up the plants. In England wild strawberry is listed as near threatened, so pick sparingly there. In central Europe, Bavaria's health authority (LGL) says eating wild berries has not been shown to be a risk factor for fox tapeworm. It still advises washing them well. Only heating above 60 °C kills the tapeworm's eggs. Home freezing does not.
Cooking
With the plant identified with certainty, eat the berries raw and soon. Rinse them briefly just before eating. Their flavour is more intense than that of garden strawberries, but it varies from plant to plant. A handful is enough to scent cream, yoghurt or a tart.
Keeping
They spoil quickly in a warm basket. Keep them cool and eat them the same day. You can freeze them, but they thaw soft.
Sources: Identification and habitat: Woodland Trust and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). Fox tapeworm: Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL).
Always consult an expert before consuming any wild food. This information is for educational purposes only.