Wild Strawberries

One question we often get is "Are wild strawberries edible?"

According to the US Forest Service, wild strawberries are often edible and even have medicinal value. Western Indians made a tea from the green leaves of the wild strawberry plant. They also used the tiny, sweet fruit of the strawberry.

Before anyone even knew about Vitamin C, Indians ate wild strawberries to help with colds. Juice from the wild strawberry was combined with water and used to soothe reddened eyes. This juice was also poured into inflamed sores and sometimes had healing effects. It was also used to relieve sunburns. A tea made from dried strawberry plant leaves was used for kidney trouble and helped relieve stomach trouble.

Drinking a tea made from the fresh green foliage of the wild strawberry saved many Minutemen in the American Revolution from scurvy.

Indians made bitters from wild strawberry roots and used it as a tonic and blood purifier after a cold, long winter. Wild strawberries were mashed up into a paste to clean teeth, remove tartar, and soothe toothaches.

Wild strawberry plants can be found from the lowest valleys to timberline in moist soils of woods, open meadows and along streams.

Strawberry leaves have 3 toothed leaflets. The flower has 5 white petals, and the red fruit is that of a typical strawberry, only much smaller in size.

Wild Strawberries can also refer to:

• Wild Strawberries (a movie), a 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman
  
• Wild Strawberries (the band), a Canadian pop music group
  
• Wild Strawberries (the song), a song by Australian group PNAU
  
• Divlje jagode (translated as 'Wild Strawberries'), a Yugoslavian rock band of the 1980's