French wild woodland strawberries with crème fraîche and a splash of kirsch: the wild berry prepared as the French forest-floor harvest has always been eaten
Origin: Ile-de-France & the French Alps
From the journey of Strawberry.
Fraises des bois, strawberries of the woods, are what the French call Fragaria vesca, the wild European woodland strawberry that has been gathered in French forests, hedgerows, and alpine meadows since Neolithic times. They appear in French medieval literature, in the herb gardens of Charlemagne's court (the Capitulare de Villis, Charlemagne's 9th-century garden decree, lists them among the plants to be cultivated), and in the still-life paintings of the 17th century as symbols of fleeting summer pleasure. By the 14th century, King Charles V had ordered 1,200 strawberry plants for the royal gardens at the Louvre; all of them Fragaria vesca. The French preparation is essentially identical to the Italian, differing only in the souring agent: where Italy reaches for aged balsamic, France reaches for crème fraîche; that distinctively French cultured cream with its clean, faintly sour edge; and sometimes a splash of kirsch, the clear cherry eau-de-vie of Alsace and the alpine tradition. The result is the same philosophy expressed in a different regional accent: the wild berry, undisturbed by unnecessary technique, allowed to be entirely itself.
Fraises des bois are found at French farmers' markets from June to August, and at specialist greengrocers in Paris and Lyon year-round as they are grown in greenhouses off-season. Outside France, look for 'alpine strawberries' or 'fraises des bois' at specialist growers or online. Garden-grown Fragaria vesca (available as plants from most good nurseries) will produce fruit with flavour far superior to any commercial strawberry, even if smaller in quantity. A glass of chilled Sauternes or a late-harvest Riesling alongside is the Alsatian tradition.
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