Strawberries

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class: Strawberries Episode Release Date: April 2, 2025

In this captivating episode of "Stuff You Missed in History Class", hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve deep into the fascinating history of strawberries, uncovering their transformation from wild foraged berries to the globally adored fruit we enjoy today. This detailed exploration combines botanical science, historical anecdotes, and intriguing tales of espionage, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of strawberries' pivotal role in agriculture and culture.

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1. Introduction to Strawberries

[02:36]
Holly Fry kicks off the episode by noting the ubiquitous presence of strawberries in modern fashion and home decor. She remarks, "Strawberries are everywhere," highlighting their cultural significance beyond just being a fruit.

2. Botanical Overview

[04:10]
Tracy V. Wilson explains that strawberries belong to the Rosaceae family, making them relatives of roses, almonds, pears, and apples. She elaborates, "Strawberries, which are rich in vitamin C, are in the genus Fragaria," providing listeners with a foundational understanding of their botanical classification.

[04:50]
Holly adds an interesting botanical fact: Strawberry "seeds" are not true seeds but are actually achenes, the fruits themselves. She clarifies, "What we eat as strawberries is the receptacle of the flower," distinguishing them from true berries.

3. Early Cultivation and Foraging

[06:05]
Tracy discusses the relatively recent domestication of strawberries, noting that they have been cultivated in their current form for only about 250 years. She references James F. Hancock's observation: "The ease with which strawberries can be collected from the wild may have delayed their cultivation until almost modern times."

4. Strawberries in Ancient History

[07:46]
The hosts explore ancient mentions of strawberries by figures like Ovid and Pliny the Elder. Holly cites Ovid's Metamorphoses: "With thine own hands, thou shalt thyself gather the soft strawberries growing beneath the woodland shade" [07:46], illustrating the fruit's presence in classical literature as both an ornamental and edible item.

5. Transition to Cultivated Strawberries

[08:58]
Holly narrates how strawberries began to be appreciated for their medicinal properties in addition to their sweetness. She lists various historical uses: "Used to treat diarrhea, gout, indigestion, skin irritation, sunburn, pimples, and yellowed teeth."

6. The Naming of Strawberries

[09:48]
Tracy delves into the etymology of "strawberry," presenting several theories:

• Growing among straw.
• Being threaded on straw for easy transport.
• Seed resemblance to straw dust.

She concludes that the first known use of the word dates back to a 15th-century pictorial vocabulary.

7. French Cultivation and Royal Gardens

[10:52]
The narrative shifts to 14th-century France, where strawberries transitioned from foraging to gardening. Holly mentions, "In 1368, strawberries were included in the Gardens of the Louvre," emphasizing their integration into royal horticulture.

[11:51]
By the 1500s, strawberries had become staples in European gardens and literature. Tracy references Shakespeare's Richard III, highlighting their popularity and medicinal classification in texts like The Great Herbal (1526).

8. Introduction of New Strawberry Species from North America and Chile

[13:40]
The discussion moves across the Atlantic to North America, where the Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) was introduced to Europe in the 17th century. Holly explains how this species was embraced and crossed with others, though it remained small in size.

[14:14]
A pivotal moment occurs in 1714 with the introduction of the Chilean strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis). Holly teases an intriguing story involving espionage, setting the stage for a deeper historical dive.

9. Amade Francois Fraisier’s Espionage Mission

[14:37]
Tracy recounts the espionage mission led by Lieutenant Colonel Amade Francois Fraisier. Posing as a merchant trader, Fraisier was tasked by King Louis XIV to collect valuable botanical specimens, including strawberries, from South America.

[20:59]
Holly narrates Fraisier's meticulous efforts to document Spanish colonial forts while secretly gathering strawberry plants. She highlights his dedication: "When Fraisier boarded the ship St. Joseph, he knew he would be undercover," [20:59].

10. Challenges in Cultivating Chilean Strawberries

[25:56]
Upon returning to France, Fraisier brought back five strawberry plants. However, these plants faced challenges in fruit production due to their dioecious nature—requiring both male and female plants for pollination. Despite meticulous care, only female plants thrived, producing no fruit. Holly notes, "They just couldn't get them to produce any fruit, except occasionally very small, misshapen and incomplete ones," [28:16].

11. Antoine Nicolas Duchesne's Breakthrough

[29:40]
The story of Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, a teenage botanist, emerges as a beacon of hope. At 17 years old, Duchesne successfully cross-pollinated Chilean and Virginia strawberry plants, resulting in the large, juicy berries we recognize today. Tracy quotes Duchesne: "No one, I believe, suspected before me the separations of the sexes in the Capitan," [35:15].

12. Impact and Legacy

[42:01]
Holly summarizes the profound impact of Duchesne and Fraisier's work: "Duchenne's legacy is still part of every supermarket strawberry we eat." She cites USDA statistics: "94% of all U.S. households consume strawberries in some form each year, with each person eating an estimated 4.85 pounds on average," [42:01]. This underscores the enduring significance of their botanical breakthroughs.

13. Listener Mail and Ethical Reflections

[42:43]
The episode transitions to listener mail, where Katie shares concerns about a school program emphasizing determination through extreme examples. Holly and Tracy reflect critically on these moral lessons, emphasizing the importance of kindness and balanced character education over potentially harmful notions of strength, fostering a thoughtful discussion on modern moral education.

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Notable Quotes:

• Holly Fry: "What we eat as strawberries is the receptacle of the flower." [04:50]
• Tracy V. Wilson: "The ease with which strawberries can be collected from the wild may have delayed their cultivation until almost modern times." [06:54]
• Tracy V. Wilson: "No one, I believe, suspected before me the separations of the sexes in the Capitan." [35:15]
• Holly Fry: "Duchenne's legacy is still part of every supermarket strawberry we eat." [42:01]

Conclusion

This episode masterfully intertwines botanical science with rich historical narratives, illustrating how two individuals' dedication and ingenuity transformed strawberries from humble wild berries to a major agricultural commodity. Holly and Tracy not only educate but also engage listeners with stories of espionage, scientific discovery, and the lasting impact of these pioneering figures. Whether you're a history buff, a gardening enthusiast, or simply love strawberries, this episode offers a delightful and informative journey through time.

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Listen to "Strawberries" on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.

Transcript

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[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers and more. This podcast tells more than just the brutal, gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the the difficult, and all the nuance I can find because these are the stories that we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[A.J. Jacobs]

J. Edgar Hoover was furious. He was out of his mind and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its KN.

[Jamie Petras]

Listen to Divine Intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[George M. Johnson]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[George M. Johnson]

Tracy, have you noticed that strawberries are kind of having a moment?

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I'm gonna be honest, I haven't. Just because I'm not aware of anything happening Fashionably.

[George M. Johnson]

Do you know what it is? It's also just that you're not a rabid consumer the way I am.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Okay.

[George M. Johnson]

Holly buys a lot of things she doesn't need, but strawberries are. They're having a moment. If you look at clothing or home design goods that are out this year, strawberries are everywhere. I literally got an email promotion for, like, plush strawberry pillows.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Oh, my goodness.

[George M. Johnson]

I was like, all right. Humans have been enjoying strawberries around the world for thousands of years, but as a cultivated plant, they're actually pretty new. The story of how they went from a small forage item to one of the world's most popular fruits. There is a technicality in there regarding that designation that we're gonna talk about in just a moment. But that story involves a lot of cross breeding experimentation, as you would expect. But what I love about it is there's also a bit of spy craft. I didn't mean to pick another French thing. I really just wanted to learn more about strawberries because they were in my face everywhere. But that's what we're talking about today.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Strawberries are actually part of the rose family from the family Rosaceae. If that seems surprising, the rose family is really quite massive. It contains four subfamilies, more than 90 genus categories, and roughly 2,500 species. A rose is in the genus Rosa. We think of it as a flower, but rose hips are also a fruit. The Rosaceae family also contains almonds, pears, and apples. Lots of other fruits as well. Strawberries, which are rich in vitamin C, are in the genus Fragaria.

[George M. Johnson]

So the seeds of the strawberry, if you've ever seen one, are, of course, on the outside, and that makes it unique in the fruit world. But it's actually not really a fruit or a berry at all. A strawberry. The thing we eat and what we think of as the strawberry is actually the end of the plant's stamen, right? It's the receptacle that receives pollen. So if you look at a strawberry flower, there's a nodule at the center, and that is the receptacle. And it's that nodule that eventually grows into the fleshy thing we eat, provided it's been pollinated. And the strawberry is sometimes called an accessory fruit because of this. And each of those seeds on the outside is the actual fruit known as achenes, although we wouldn't think of them as fruit because they're not delicious. I mean, there might be someone that thinks strawberry seeds are delicious, but I've never met one. And an average Strawberry has as many as 200 of these, not really seeds on its skin. And those can be used to grow new plants. But the more common way for new plants to form is actually through runners. So a healthy plant will send out shoots called stolons, and those will root when they touch the ground, and then a new plant will grow there.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Strawberries have not been cultivated in the sense that we know them now for really all that long, only about 250 years. But of course, they've been around for a lot longer than that. If you've ever seen strawberries growing in the wild, or even if you've grown some from seed, those were probably a lot smaller than the ones you might buy at a grocery store. And that's what strawberries are like without human intervention in breeding and cultivation. But even before humans knew how to grow big, juicy strawberries, they really loved them. Horticultural biologist James F. Hancock notes in his book on strawberries, quote, the ease with which strawberries can be collected from the wild may actually have delayed their cultivation until almost modern times.

[George M. Johnson]

Naturally occurring strawberries have been enjoyed in recorded history since at least ancient Rome, and probably longer, but that's the first time we have a record of them. It's estimated that people started domesticating strawberries, growing them on purpose, but not messing with their genetics, about 2,000 years ago. And that seems like a long time. But if you compare that to the domestication of grain, which started roughly 10,000 years ago, it's obviously not that long. And even so, these were in all likelihoods just clippings or transplants of the small, previously foraged strawberries that we mentioned a moment ago. And again, not the fat, juicy ones. The larger versions seen in markets today are the ones that we mentioned as being cultivated in the last 250 years. And we'll get to how those came about in just a bit.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Ovid mentions strawberries in his writings, and so did Virgil. But these mentions were not about them as food, more about them as ornamentals and identifiers. For example, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, strawberries come up twice. Once in a line where he just mentions the gathering of mountain strawberries, and another where character of Polyphemus says to his estranged lover, quote, with thine own hands, thou shalt thyself gather the soft strawberries growing beneath the woodland shade. Pliny the Elder mentions the strawberry in Natural History as a plant native to Italy, but he also seems to confuse it with another plant with a similar name in the same book and in Virgil's work, Eclogues, written in the first century BCE he notes, ye boys that gather flowers and strawberries low hid within the grass a serpent lies. It's a warning about snakes more than it's about the strawberry. The scant other mentions of strawberries in writing before the 14th century tended to be about the appearance of the berries or the flowers, rather than their edible potential.

[George M. Johnson]

And even once people did start eating them or consuming them in other ways, strawberries were just as likely to be consumed for health reasons as for having any kind of sweet fruit. And all parts of the plant have been used in various treatments. So there are mentions of strawberries being used to treat diarrhea, gout, indigest, skin irritation, sunburn, pimples, and yellowed teeth in various medical texts throughout history. And these uses have some solid scientific basis, Although those early users of strawberries as medicine wouldn't have had the data we have today to turn to right now, we know that strawberries are, as we mentioned earlier, loaded with vitamin C and also folic acid, antioxidants and potassium, as well as just being full of fiber.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Where the name strawberry comes from is a matter of speculation, and the theories vary quite a lot. One idea is that because they grow on the ground, they may have often been seen growing in straw. Another is that the berries might have been threaded on straw to be easy to carry and sell, or maybe that they were stored on beds of straw for transport to markets. Another, and one that maybe makes the most sense, is that they were first called strawberries because of the way that they grew strewn about the ground, or maybe because they ripened at the same time as hay did, and then that eventually the name shifted to a different vowel in the first syllable. I have seen the speculation that maybe those little seed like bits on the outside looked like straw dust to people, and that was maybe the source of it. But anyway, the first known use of the word strawberry comes from a pictorial vocabulary of the latter 15th century.

[George M. Johnson]

In the 14th century, strawberries had become popular enough in France that the transition was made from foraging them to gardening them. This was a strawberry species that had been found in the woods, Fragaria vesca, which people started to purposely grow near their homes for easy access, although they still were often sought out for their visual appeal and not necessarily for eating. There are also many instances of strawberries appearing in religious art in Europe in its early years of cultivation. Strawberries appear in imagery throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, often symbolizing righteousness. In 1368, strawberries were included in the Gardens of the Louvre. At this time, it was still the main palace of the King of France, who is Charles V. And at the King's request, royal gardener Jean Dudoy incorporated 1200 strawberries into the garden's design.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I bet that was so pretty.

[George M. Johnson]

Yep.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

By the 1400s, strawberries were being sold by street vendors in London. And by the 1500s, another species, Fragaria moscata, also known as the musk strawberry, had made its way into gardens as well. Strawberries were grown in other European countries in addition to England and France. Shakespeare's Richard III includes a mention of strawberries by the Duke of Gloucester, who describes seeing them in the garden of the Bishop of Ely and asks that the bishop send him some. By the time Shakespeare wrote that play in 1597, strawberries had been extremely popular in England for decades. King Henry VIII was a big fan. They were described as a medicinal remedy in the 1526 book the Great Herbal, and were discussed at length in a 1536 book, Denaturius Stirpium libri, which was written by a botanist named Druelius. The strawberry had also been classified as a plant that was appropriate for women to cultivate in the 1557 book 500 Points of Good Husbandry. By that point, there was a clear division in writings between strawberries that were purposely grown versus strawberries that were naturally occurring.

[George M. Johnson]

And France had continued to embrace the strawberry into the 16th century. Henry IV of France's personal physician wrote about them in the 1560s. Their cultivation was described in detail in the 1578 writing L'Agriculture et Maison Rustique, written by Jean Libeau and Charles Etienne. And in this book, that duo recommended that fields should be planted with strawberries every third year as a way to keep them fertile.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Across the Atlantic, North America had its own native strawberry, the Fragaria virginiana, or Virginia strawberry. Sometime in the 17th century, the Virginia strawberry made its way to Europe. How that happened exactly is a little unclear. But as Europe already loves strawberries, this new variety was embraced, and it started to be actively cultivated and crossed with others, creating more than two dozen new species. But these were still, in terms of the fruit, on the small side.

[George M. Johnson]

In 1714, something happened that changed the strawberry forever. The short version is that a native Chilean species known as Fragaria chiloensis made its way to Europe. But the story is much more interesting than that, and we're going to talk about it after we pause for a sponsor break.

[Jamie Petras]

September 1979. Virginia's top prison band, Edge of Daybreak, is about to record their debut album, Behind Bars, in just five hours.

[Gabrielle Union]

Okay, we're rolling.

[George M. Johnson]

One, two, three, four.

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I'm Jamie Petras, music and culture writer. For the past five years, I've been talking to the band's three surviving members. They're out of prison now and in their 70s, their past behind them. But they also have some unfinished business.

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The everyday break, Eyes of Love was.

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Supposed to have been followed up by another album.

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It's a story about the liberating power of music, the American justice system, and ultimately, second chances. Listen to soul incarcerated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gabrielle Union]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to share my podcast with you. Math and stories from the frontiers of Marketing. This week, I'm talking to the CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bonsell, about how he led his team through unprecedented times to create, test, and distribute a COVID vaccine, all in less than a year. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and magic stories from the frontiers of Marketing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[George M. Johnson]

My name is Harry Houdini.

[Tim Harford]

Harry Houdini could make elephants disappear, walk through walls, and escape the Chinese water torture cell. But he was also on a mission against mediums.

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I have never seen one genuine medium.

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[Jamie Petras]

It takes a flim flammer to catch a flim flammer.

[Tim Harford]

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[George M. Johnson]

They're going to kill me.

[Tim Harford]

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[George M. Johnson]

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[A.J. Jacobs]

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[George M. Johnson]

But you may also know us as.

[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

Harrison Dula, Spectre 2, Sabine Wren, Specter.

[A.J. Jacobs]

5, and Ezra Bridger, Specter 6 from Star Wars Rebels. Wait, I wasn't on Star Wars Rebels. Am I in the right place.

[George M. Johnson]

Absolutely.

[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

Each week we're going to rewatch and discuss an episode from the series and.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Share some fun behind the scenes stories. Sometimes we'll be visited by special guests like Steve Bloom voices Zaborelio's Spectre 4, or Dante Bosco voicing Jai Kell and many others.

[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

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[A.J. Jacobs]

And we'll have plenty of other fun.

[George M. Johnson]

Surprises and trivia too.

[A.J. Jacobs]

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[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

Nicely done John.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Thanks Tia.

[George M. Johnson]

So hang on cause it's gonna be a fun ride. Cue the music.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Listen to Potter Rebellion on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[George M. Johnson]

Fragaria chiloensis is n a bit larger than the strawberries that Europeans and North Americans were accustomed to in the early 18th century. It was more than likely cultivated by the Mapuche and Huiliche people for centuries before Europeans ever knew about it. When conquistador Francisco Pizarro's forces conquered Chile in the mid 16th century, they took some of these strawberries with them to Cuzco, Peru. There the fruit was written about by Garcilazzo de la Vega. His description was of a heart shaped fruit that had seeds on the outside, although it's clear that's talking about a strawberry, he called it by a name that we associate with something very different. He called it the Chili. Other Europeans who traveled to Chile also made note of this fruit, comparing it to its European counterparts but always mentioning it, mentioning that it had better flavor and was larger, some comparing them to the size of large nuts. These Chilean strawberries are described as being different colors in different people's accounts, ranging from red to white, with basically every gradation in between. But for some reason, no one writing these descriptions ever thought to bring one back to Europe.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

These accounts, and particularly one by French priest Louis Foyer, got the attention of France's King Louis xiv. He wanted to know more about this delicious berry, so he found an engineer who could be sent to the Americas to assess the forces of the Spanish colonies there. Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Anjou, had become King Philip V of Spain following the War of Spanish Succession, so this spy work was more about making sure things were good and that Louis XIV financial and political backing of Philip V were worthwhile, as well as ensuring that France understood the situation completely in case everything went Sideways on the global stage. So even though Spain and France were allies at this time, this was still a secret mission. But the selected spy was also tasked with collecting information and samples of the plant life of South America. Depending on the source you read, was possibly also keeping an eye out for the amazing strawberry that Fouy and others had written about.

[George M. Johnson]

Yes, there's not a clear line of evidence that says that that it was a strawberry was like, go get me some strawberries. But it does seem like he was very intrigued by them, and this person certainly does get some. That spy that we're talking about was a 32 year old lieutenant colonel named Amede Francois Fraisier. Fraisier was born in 1682 in Chambery, Savoy, which is in the eastern part of France. It's about 300 kilometers from the Swiss border. Initially, the path that Amade Francois was expected to follow in terms of education was one that was going to lead him to the legal profession, which is what his father did. But Fraisier was not interested in the law, he was interested in science. And he managed to convince his father that he should go to Paris to study that instead of law. In his studies, he focused on navigation and astronomy, and he wrote his thesis on the relationship between the two. And when he had completed his education in Paris, he then spent time in Italy, where he also indulged his interest in architecture and art and studied those disciplines during his time there.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

But he didn't immediately translate his education into a strictly scientific vocation. In 1700, at the age of 18, Fraisier joined the military, enlisting with the army of France. But he still did keep his scientific work going, really for no other reason than to occupy himself. He had a lot of free time in the infantry. He wrote a paper on pyrotechnics, including instructions on the manufacture of fireworks. But this did actually advance his military career, as did mention the possible uses of fireworks by the military. So this landed him as a position as a military engineer. That position was part of the intelligence branch. And that's how he came to be the man for the job that Louis XIV had in mind. His varied knowledge of navigation, explosives and science led to him being selected by his commanding officers as the man they recommended. He sailed out on January 7, 1712.

[George M. Johnson]

When Fraisier boarded the ship the St. Joseph headed for South America. He knew that he would be undercover as he completed this mission. He arrived in concepcion, Chile, on June 16, and he couldn't exactly hide. So instead he created an alternate backstory for himself and Posed as a merchant trader, this Persona made it possible for him to travel openly and to visit places under the guise of mere curiosity instead of performing reconnaissance. For two and a half years, he toured Peru and Chile, feigning to be a merchant and a tourist, all the while documenting the fortifications of the Spanish military. He made detailed maps of the Spanish colonial forts with detailed accounts of their artillery and their weak points, where an attack might be mounted, as well as their potential routes of escape. And accompanying those maps and accounts, he included information about the surrounding areas, such as the indigenous population populations, the municipal governments, religious practices of the locals, etc.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

These were cultivated strawberries in soil that Fraisier described as, quote, extraordinarily fertile. He wrote of the location quote. There they plant whole fields with a sort of strawberry rushes differing from ours, and that the leaves are rounder, thicker and more downy. The fruit is generally as big as a walnut and sometimes as a hen's egg of a whitish red and somewhat less delicious of taste than our wood strawberries. Besides these, there is plenty in the woods of our European kind.

[George M. Johnson]

Fraisier also noted in the description that he had collected some of these plants for the King's garden. He also included a life size drawing of the strawberries he described. This drawing showed them full of fruit, but not showing the plant's flowers. When Fraisier returned to France on August 17, 1714, he carried with him five of the strawberry plants which he had cared for on the voyage back across the Atlantic. This was no small feat. Listen, if you've ever transported plants, you know there are dangers. And in addition to all of the jostling that a plant might meet at sea, water was rationed on this trip, so prioritizing the plant's need for it had required careful calculation and some assistance from a crew member who we'll mention in just a moment. Fraisier was honored by Louis XIV for this work, with a cash reward for the many maps he returned with, and of course, those strawberries.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Amadie Fraisier wrote a book about his travels titled Account of the Voyage from the South Sea to the Coasts of Chile, Peru and Brazil, made during the years 1712, 1713 and 1714. Louis XIV did not live long enough to see this published. He died on September 1, 1715, which was the year before it was finished. So he really didn't get to see the full results of the spy mission or the fruit that came from it. A lot of people got to read about it, though, because Fraisier's book, which corrected a number of map errors made by his predecessor, Louis Fliet, and caused an ongoing feud between those two men that was translated into English, Dutch and German. Monica Barnes, writing for the American Museum of Natural History in 2008, noted of this popular text quote, most of the information in Fraisier's text is superficial, obviously biased and available from other sources. However, during the second and third decades of the 18th century, there was little information on western South America available to readers outside the Spanish speaking world. To a certain extent, Fred filled that gap. The great strength of his work lies not in its narrative, but in its many excellent illustrations.

[George M. Johnson]

The illustrations are very good. So of those five plants that we mentioned that he brought back, only one of them actually went to the King, or more specifically, to the King's gardener in Paris, Antoine de Jusieux. Remember, strawberries readily reproduce and spread through runners, so that one plant led to many. And in addition to the King's plant, Fraisier kept one for himself. He gave one to his boss, Monsieur Pelletier, and he gave two to a Monsieur Roux, who had been in charge of cargo on the voyage to France and who had been very key to making sure the plants got water. But though all of these plants produced new plants through runners, what they weren't producing was fruit. Because, as it turned out, the Chilean strawberry was a species that has male plants and female plants, as many strawberries are, and you need both of those to achieve pollination and produce fruit.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

It's long been presumed that Fraisier, in wanting to bring the best plants back to France, naturally selected ones that bore large fruit. That meant they were all female. Although Jesu had shared the runners of the King's plant with other gardeners, both in France and abroad, they just couldn't get them to produce any fruit, except occasionally very small, misshapen and incomplete ones. There were a lot of studies made of the plants with details about their large flowers and stout leaves, and all of this was recorded and analyzed, but there was just no fruit. One Dutch botanist called it the chili strawberry, without blooms or fruits. In his notes, they were taken to gardeners in England who tried to solve the puzzle. Some experimenters got really good at producing large, healthy blooms, but that was all the success they could really achieve. By the 1740s, a lot of gardeners had grown tired of trying to get something out of the Chilean plants, and in England they had fallen out of favor.

[George M. Johnson]

But the strawberry was not abandoned by every hopeful horticulturist. We'll talk about the breakthrough that offered some hope for the almost mythical berries that Fraisier had touted. After we pause for a sponsor break.

[Jamie Petras]

September 1979. Virginia's top prison band, Edge of Daybreak, is about to record their debut album behind Bars in just five hours.

[Gabrielle Union]

Okay, we're rolling.

[George M. Johnson]

One, two, three, four.

[Jamie Petras]

I'm Jamie Petras, music and culture writer. For the past five years, I've been talking to the band's three surviving members. They're out of prison now and in their 70s, their past behind them. But they also have some unfinished business.

[George M. Johnson]

The air to Daybreak, Eyes of Love.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Was supposed to have been followed up by another album.

[Jamie Petras]

It's a story about the liberating power of music, the American justice system, and ultimately, second chances. Listen to soul incarcerated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gabrielle Union]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia. I'm excited to share my podcast with you. Math and stories from the frontiers of Marketing. This week, I'm talking to the CEO of Moderna, Stephane Bonsel, about how he led his team through unprecedented times to create, test, and distribute a COVID vaccine, all in less than a year. It becomes a human decision to decide to throw by the window your business strategy and to do what you think is the right thing for the world. Join me as we uncover innovations in data and analytics, the math, and the ever important creative spark, the magic. Listen to math and magic stories from the frontiers of marketing on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you get your podcasts.

[George M. Johnson]

My name is Harry Houdini.

[Tim Harford]

Harry Houdini could make elephants disappear, walk through walls, and escape the Chinese water torture cell. But he was also on a mission against mediums.

[A.J. Jacobs]

I have never seen one genuine medium.

[Tim Harford]

Join me, Tim Harford, for a cautionary tales trilogy on the world's most famous magician.

[Jamie Petras]

It takes a flim flammer to catch a flim flammer.

[Tim Harford]

Houdini wanted the world to see reason in an age of spiritualism. He went undercover to seances, exposed fakes and charlatans, and even tried to convince Washington lawmakers to ban mediums for good, a campaign that cost him friends and made him many enemies.

[George M. Johnson]

They're going to kill me.

[Tim Harford]

Listen to cautionary tales on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Cheekies]

Hey, y'all, it's your girl, Cheekies. And I'm back with a brand new season of your favorite podcast, Cheekies and Chill. I'll be sharing even more personal stories with you guys. And I know a lot of people are gonna attack me.

[Gabrielle Union]

Why?

[Cheekies]

Are you gonna go visit your dad? Your mom wouldn't be okay with it. I'm gonna tell you guys right now. I know my mother and I know my mom had a very forgiving heart. That is my story on plastic surgery. This is my truth. I think the last time I cried like that was when I lost my mom like that, like, yelling. I was like, no. I was like, oh. And I thought, what did I do wrong? And as always, you'll get my exclusive take on topics like love, personal growth, health, family ties, and more. And don't forget, I'll also be dishing out my best advice to you on episodes of Dear Cheekies.

[George M. Johnson]

So my fiance and I have been together for 10 years. In the first two years of being together, I find out he is cheating on me, not only with women, but also with men. What should I do?

[Cheekies]

Okay, where do I start? That's not love. He doesn't love you enough. Because if he loved you, he'd be faithful. It's going to be an exciting year, and I hope that you can join me, listen to Cheekies and Chill Season four as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartrade radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[George M. Johnson]

In France, some gardeners were managing to produce fruit from Fraisier's plants, although not very many. There are notes of a Monsieur de Noet Grou who reported that he had managed to get some very large berries, some with a circumference of 7.5 inches, by crossing the Chilean plant with pollens from native berries. Fifty years after Fraisier's plants arrived in Europe, someone produced large fruit from a Chilean strawberry and presented a bowl of that fruit to King Louis XV on July 6, 1764. That person was a teenager. He was just 17, and his name was Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, and he got his strawberries by crossing the Chilean strawberries with musk strawberries. Duchenne, who was in line to inherit the job of superintendent of the King's buildings from his father, had learned a great deal about botany from the younger brother of the king's Paris gardener. That brother's name was Bernard de Jesus, and Duchenne was building on the work of other gardeners and botanists. And because of this gift to the king, he was given funding from the king to continue this work. And he used that funding to produce what would become a foundational text on strawberry cultivation. He also, at the king's request collected specimens of all the known species of strawberry to be part of the gardens at Versailles.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

His revelation regarding the sex of the plants had come on May 29, 1764, when he had a Fragaria chiloensis sent to him from the Versailles garden. It had already bloomed and no berries were growing on it. And he was able to see that these flowers were female without any male Chilean plants. He placed it near a male musk strawberry, which he had noticed had some similarities to the Chilean import. And by June 6th, just a week later, one of the receptacles had started to swell. It had been pollinated. This was the experiment that led to the berries that he presented to the king.

[George M. Johnson]

Figuring out the key to consistent strawberries and their fertility did not happen instantly. Though those beautiful berries that the 17 year old Duchenne brought to Versailles had not been able to reproduce, they didn't produce viable seeds. Duchenne dedicated himself to learning basically everything known about the strawberry and all of its varieties, as he also experimented with different iterations of cross pollination. He also consulted with well known scientists, including Linnaeus, as he worked through his experiments, both for advice and kind of as a sort of peer review of his observations. But even Linnaeus was unconvinced of this idea of separate male and female plants. And he thought that perhaps Duchenne had been observing strawberries that were frostbitten or damaged in some other way. When Duchenne wrote his book about his work, he noted, quote, no one, I believe, suspected before me the separations of the sexes in the Capitan. And through working with his own experiments and the information he collected from other horticulturists, he was able to figure out that the greatest success in cross pollination happened when the female Chilean strawberries were combined with male Virginia strawberries. Large fruit was the consistent result and that resulting fruit bore seeds and those seeds produced plants that could self pollinate. He had created a new species of strawberry which he called Fragaria ananasa. So Ananasa is a reference to pineapples, because these resulting berries smelled to Duchenne like pineapple. And the Fragaria ananasa is the strawberry that we eat today.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

The success of the combination of the two North American strawberry species has led to the theory that these two species were possibly originally from the same species, likely one that originate in Asia, and that these two lines developed in the separate climates of Chile and then farther north in North America. If that's the case, the two plant species went on a huge journey before being finally brought back together in France.

[George M. Johnson]

So if you speak French, you may have been thinking throughout all of this that because of this extended spy mission, the word fraise, which means strawberry, was applied to the beloved fruit as an honor to the man who brought the Chilean samples back to the French king. But in a hilarious twist, that is actually the opposite of what happened. Fraisier's family already had an association with the strawberry going quite a ways back, and the name Fraisier had been gifted to them by a previous king of France. So this story goes all the way back to the 10th century, when one of Amede Fraisier's ancestors, Julius du Barry, which is hilarious that he was already called Barry, served king Charles III strawberries at the end of a banquet as a gift. Not only was the king delighted, but his Italian guest, Cardinal Clemens of Monte Alto, was bowled over and described these berries as superior to any that could be found in Italy. So, in thanks for making France look very good with a foreign official, Charles III knighted Julius de Berry and bestowed the name Fraise strawberry upon him, as well as giving the family coat of arms three strawberry blossoms. And then, over time, FR shifted to Fraisier. So in terms of lore, it almost seems like Amade was destined to be Louis XIV's strawberry guy.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

As for Fraisier's life post strawberry retrieval, it was a full one. He went back across the Atlantic in 1719, this time as chief engineer at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He returned to Europe and oversaw the building of a reported 26 defense structures. He got married and had a family, and he continued working, rising higher in his career, until he finally retired at the age of 82. But he continued to write and read a great deal, and died in 1773 at the age of 91, having been celebrated for a wide variety of achievements.

[George M. Johnson]

Yeah, he's one of those people that was pretty recognized as like an icon and a sage in his time. He got to enjoy the benefit of his reputation While he was still alive. Antoine Nicolas Duchene continued to experiment with strawberries and other plants and published a lot of books about his work. He was able, for example, to identify the optimal temperatures at which strawberries would produce, and eventually also developed a master diagram of the theoretical genealogical tree, which included all of the known types of strawberries and how he believed they developed from a single origin point. When the French Revolution of 1789 erupted, Duchenne lost his post. And because he was so connected to the royal family, he was in real danger of being guillotined. He did manage to ride out the conflict with his life though, and he turned to teaching once things had settled down. But after that his life became sort of a series of bad money management, sorrow at the loss of his wife and daughter, and eventually rapidly declining health. He died in 1827 after a series of strokes just shy of his 80th birthday.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Duchenne saw in his lifetime the benefit of his work in strawberry breeding. Before he died, many, many gardeners throughout Europe were implementing the information he had developed to produce big, juicy, self fertile strawberry crops. Dishes featuring strawberries became luxury items, with strawberries and cream being especially popular.

[George M. Johnson]

Duchenne's legacy is still part of every supermarket strawberry we eat. The USDA estimates that 94% of all U.S. households consume strawberries in some form each year, with each person eating an estimated 4.85 pounds on average. Annually, the US produces 3 billion pounds of strawberries each year at a rate of about 6,000 pounds per acre. By the early 2000 and tens, strawberries had become the third most important fruit crop for the US economy, following grapes and oranges, and all because of Duchenne and Fraisier.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Do you have some listener mail for us?

[George M. Johnson]

Yeah, I surely do. This is from our listener Katie who writes hi Holly and Tracy. I really enjoyed your recent episode on the children's morality code. My kids elementary school has used a program called Character Strong for the last several years. I saw some of the lessons when school was over. Zoom. I definitely saw some echoes of this old morality code in them. There was one that was about determination, if I remember correctly, that featured a video celebrating a disabled girl running a long race even though she was unable to walk afterwards. Being reminded of the program made me curious so I checked out their website. It doesn't have many particulars about the program, but it does have this in the description quote Explicit direct skill instruction designed to lead to three powerful outcomes. Be strong, Be kind, Be well.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Yikes.

[George M. Johnson]

I've sent y'all pictures of our pets before so I thought I'd mix it up and send a recent quilting project. I'm still a novice but I've made a lot of progress and an Ebert squirrel eating fallen birdseed. Thanks for all the work you do and throwing in some lighter episodes during all of this. You may be a novice, but this quilting is beautiful. It's a really beautiful kind of green and cream with accents of peach and pink florals on it. It's absolutely gorgeous and I always love a squirrel picture. We have squirrel friends that visit our deck all the time I just put out food for them too. We keep everybody fat and happy on our deck. But Katie, thanks for this. Terrifying to know that we're still doing that garbage. Yeah.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I mean, like we said in the behind the scenes, I totally get teaching kids about things like honesty.

[George M. Johnson]

Yes. And like strength of character. Great. But the idea of like you have to push beyond your physical limits to a point that seems dangerous where you are unable to function.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Yeah.

[George M. Johnson]

That's not strength, that's. That's dangerous.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

The idea of associating morals with being. Well.

[George M. Johnson]

Right. You'll be less disabled if you're stronger is messed up.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Uh huh.

[George M. Johnson]

Super messed up. I hope somebody is reviewing that and realizing how woefully bad it is. Listen, teach kids to be kind, to take care of themselves and one another so good. You don't have to do any of the other moralizing about what it is to be a strong per. I hate all that. It gives me the ick.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Really bad. I'm reminded of the person who sent us a letter whose two family rules were don't hit and hold hands in the parking lot, which they had as an adult sort of re envisioned as be kind to one another and look out for each other.

[George M. Johnson]

That's very funny. You are reminding me of. Many moons ago, I used to manage a hair salon and one of our clients had two boys and they did the thing. I've heard of other families doing this, but this mom made these two boys do this in public once and it tickled me. And I don't know if anyone would think it was terribly cruel, but they were fighting real bad in public. And so she had a giant shirt that she made them wear together.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

I think I've heard of this giant shirt story.

[George M. Johnson]

She's not the only one. She stuck out to me because of some prominence in terms of being connected to a professional athlete. But you know, it was one of those things where it just. I understand the logic of it. I'm not a parent. I don't know what works for any given family. But the logic. Right. Is of course, if you have to be in that close proximity, you cannot be physically fighting or you. You will just both fall down.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Yeah, yeah.

[George M. Johnson]

There's a whole restraint discussion to be had there. But I get it. Listen, the rules of how people teach kids are constantly changing. Yeah.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Yeah.

[George M. Johnson]

In any case.

[Jamie Petras]

Yeah.

[George M. Johnson]

Just. Just be kind to one another. Be kind and look out for each other. If you would like to write to us to tell us whether or not you had to share a shirt with a sibling when you fought, or anything else. You can do that@history podcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to the podcast Easy on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.

[Mary Kay McBrayer]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Dressing. Dressing.

[George M. Johnson]

Oh, French dressing.

[A.J. Jacobs]

Exactly.

[George M. Johnson]

Ah, that's good.

[A.J. Jacobs]

I'm AJJ Jacobs and my current obsession is puzzles, and that has given birth to my podcast the Puzzler.

[George M. Johnson]

Something about Mary Poppins?

[A.J. Jacobs]

Exactly.

[George M. Johnson]

This is fun.

[A.J. Jacobs]

You can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. Listen to the Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Brendan Patrick Hughes]

I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast the Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers and more. This podcast tells more than just the brutal, gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the difficult, and all the nuance I can find because these are the stories that we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between. Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jamie Petras]

My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention. This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild haired priests trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell bent effort to sabotage a war.

[A.J. Jacobs]

J. Edgar Hoover was furious. He was out of his mind and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees.

[Jamie Petras]

Listen to Divine intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[George M. Johnson]

Are your ears bored? Yeah. Are you looking for a new podcast that will make you laugh, learn and say que? Yeah. Then tune in to locatora radio season 10 today. Okay, now that's what I call a podcast. I'm Viosa. I'm Mala, the host of Locatora Ra Radio, a radiophonic novella, which is just a very extra way of saying a podcast. Listen to Locatora Radio Season 10 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.