27th February Strawberry Day

Seeds on the outside, sweet on the inside - February 27th is National

Strawberry Day! Even if they aren't in season, that doesn't mean you

can't enjoy them because today they seem to be in the shops all

year round.

A gift from Chile in the 1700s, garden strawberry plants made their

way to North America in the 1750s. The plant is easy to grow and now 

seems to flourish anywhere in the world. I don't know when or how 

they arrived in Australia.

We only had a handful of books in the library about strawberries, 

so when putting together a table display today I needed to put out

recipe books open to wonderful concoctions such as cake, cheesecake,

shortbread and smoothies made with strawberries.

Books worth having though are:
• The First Strawberries by Joseph Bruchac and Anna Vojtech
This is a retelling of a Cherokee legend which explains how strawberries
came to be.
• Strawberries are Red by Petr Horacek is a board book about colour but
the cover works well for display.
• Life cycles: Strawberries by Robin Nelson is a nonfiction book that looks
at how a strawberry grows.
• The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Brown Bear
by Audrey and Don Wood. This is an old story but a good one where a
small mouse is determined to save his strawberry from a hungry bear.
• Cock-a-doodle-doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
Big Brown Rooster is sick of chicken feed and together with his friends
decides to make a strawberry shortcake.