Would you like to know if purple strawberries are real? In my experience, producing these intensely pigmented purple strawberries requires approximately 13 years.
‘Purple’ is a genuinely purple strawberry. It begins as a milky white color and ripens to red, burgundy, and a deep purple with purple undertones.
Plant breeders developed this variety at Cornell University’s Small Fruit Program. Until this year, only three commercially available strawberry colors were naturally occurring.
The traditional and renowned crimson strawberries require no introduction or explanation.
White strawberries have existed for an extended period and recently reemerged due to the widespread popularity of the Pineberry variety.
Yellow strawberries have also served a lesser niche market. However, those were the sole alternatives.
However, that is not the entirety of the subject matter. As you continue to read, I will provide additional information.
Now, let’s get started.
ALSO READ – Alpine Strawberry Vs Wild Strawberry
Do Purple Strawberries Exist
Indeed. Humans consumed various purple berries as a significant energy source long before we knew medicine.
We now understand that this unique category of nutrients encompasses much more. Flavonoids, an essential antioxidant group, are abundant in purple fruit.
Strawberries are exceedingly popular, but each year, novel varieties of berries, such as acai berries, are cultivated through genetic manipulation or “discovered.”
Admittedly, they are genuinely drupes, but you get the idea.
Therefore, it is unsurprising that the date has arrived for the Purple Wonder strawberry. Indeed, the berry’s pigmentation is purplish; I describe it as more burgundy.
Unlike the typical red Strawberry, which is colorless inside, the color extends throughout the entire berry.
Their higher antioxidant content makes them a healthy option, and their darker hue makes them an excellent choice for preparing strawberry wine and preserves.
I know many of us are apprehensive about genetically modified foods; however, the good news is that Purple Wonder strawberries are not genetically modified.
The tiny fruits breeding program at Cornell University has naturally reproduced them.
The development of these purple strawberry plants began in 1999 and was released in 2012. This comprises 13 years of development.
Can You Eat Purple Strawberries?
Despite their modest size, these purple strawberries taste lovely and fragrant, reminiscent of strawberries.
When fully ripe, they transform from a creamy white to a rich burgundy hue, and the color continues to develop through to the heart of the cherry.
Because of this, they are an excellent choice for any culinary application that would benefit from a darker hue.
The color is uniform throughout the entire fruit, unlike the typical red Strawberry, which has a white inside.
The darker color of these strawberries makes them a good choice for manufacturing strawberry wine and preserves.
Additionally, the high antioxidant content of these strawberries makes them a healthy option.
ALSO READ – How Do Strawberry Runners Reproduce
Is A Strawberry Purple
Because of the prevalence of red anthocyanin component pelargonidin, strawberries are commonly considered red fruit.
On the other hand, some fruit breeding lines have extremely dark coloring, with pigmentation that borders on burgundy or purple.
The ‘purple’ fruit may have a different predominant anthocyanin than pelargonidin because of this color difference, which is more akin to the anthocyanin cyanidin than pelargonidin.
Strawberry fruit showing red or burgundy skin color, red or burgundy flesh color, or a mix of both were tested for anthocyanin profiles in skin and flesh tissues.
After being extracted from the fruit’s surface, achenes were examined independently.
Additional plant parts, including leaves, petioles, and colored petals, were also analyzed for the presence of anthocyanin.
The main anthocyanin found in the skin and flesh of red and burgundy-colored fruit tissue was pelargonidin-3-glucoside.
There was also cyanidin-3-glucoside; however, it was found in burgundy tissue in a much more significant amount (12-19%) than in red tissue (1-7%).
Furthermore, the total anthocyanin concentration was considerably greater in burgundy-coloured tissues compared to red-coloured tissues.
Remarkably, the sole anthocyanin found in leaf lamina, petioles, and colored petals was cyanidin-3-glucoside, the most abundant anthocyanin in achenes from the fruit’s surface.
The presence of pelargonidin only in strawberry fruit flesh may suggest that strawberry fruit tissue has a more actively downregulated capacity to convert the pelargonidin precursor, dihydro kaempferol, to the cyanidin precursor, dihydroquercetin.
This could have been done to make the forest progenitors of strawberry fruit more visible to animals that disperse seeds.
A manifold increase in total anthocyanin content and a partial reversal of this downregulation appear in the current purple-fruited breeding lines, resulting in a darker overall fruit color.
Purple Strawberry is a strawberry cultivar distinguished by its distinct deep purple-red hue, which permeates the fruit and leaves.
The shrub, which bears big, firm-textured, tasty berries, is a cross between a wild Virginia strawberry and a Chilean type.
ALSO READ – How Often Do Strawberry Plants Produce Fruit
What Do Purple Strawberries Taste Like
“Purple Wonder has an amazing strawberry taste and is sweet and fragrant.”There is no food shop with such a hue.
The medium-sized berries fade from creamy white to scarlet to rich burgundy.
Customers who used to buy fruit with a colored surface may be startled to realize that color develops throughout the fruit. The berries also taste better when matured on the plant.”
In addition to being used to make strawberry wine and deep-colored preserves, Purple Wonder berries and their purple juice also provide a healthy dose of antioxidants.
The deep hue gives preserves a rich, mouthwatering look and flavor. Purple Wonder may be used to make fine strawberry wine.
Naturally, they taste great when eaten fresh, exhibiting a lovely traditional strawberry flavor.
Where Do Purple Strawberries Come From
The Cornell University small fruit breeding program has naturally produced this type. It can take a long time and a lot of work to bring new cultivars to market; this burgundy variety took that long to mature.
Thirteen years after the official Purple Wonder strawberry cultivar was first introduced, it was finally made public on March 5, 2012.
This is a straightforward dish: strawberries wrapped in purple chocolate.
Melted white chocolate combines blue and red food coloring to create a stunning light purple tint. Serve these strawberries alone or garnish them with other ingredients.
How Many Colors Of Strawberries Are There
Uniquely colored strawberries have been around for a few decades. These cover white, pink, yellow, and golden fruit.
It’s pretty close to wanting to grow strawberries in different colors; colorful fruits and vegetables have been available for a while (purple cabbage and yellow carrots are especially popular).
Usually bred from wild or alpine strawberry “off-types,” these varieties protect the seeds against subtle color changes.
Though bold promises from internet stores selling their seeds or plants notwithstanding, photoshopped strawberries on the internet should be avoided: vivid blue, neon pink, brilliant green, black, or rainbow strawberries do not exist.
Nevertheless, several extraordinary variances would flourish in your yard on the conventional Strawberry.
This might be a wise option for certain strawberry producers. Day-neutral kinds have certain shortcomings, though, just like everbearing variations.
One is that these plants must be replaced year-round as they are usually cultivated as annuals instead of perennials.
One of the pleasures of raising strawberries is having a specific patch return year after year; with day-neutral types, that is only sometimes the case.
ALSO READ – Strawberry Vs Blueberry
Final Thought
Now that we have established Fragaria allergen A1 (or Fra a1), it is a unique maturation protein that enables regular red strawberries to transition from white to red as they mature.
They ripen but remain white because white strawberries contain minimal Fra a1.
Therefore, you must ensure that the items you acquire are as red as feasible. “If the strawberries still have green spots, they were picked too early.”
Nevertheless, the crimson color is only sometimes a reliable indicator of maturity; it frequently depends on the variety.