![]() With the closure of the train station, the lumber industry moved in, planting huge tracts of pine and eucalyptus which, local farmers argue, degraded the soil. The first blow was the closing of the Lebu-Los Sauces train line in 1985, which carted the white strawberries to Chile’s third-biggest city, Concepción, where they were a prized summer treat. She explains that several factors contributed to their precipitous decline in recent decades. Cecilia Céspedes, an agroecological researcher with the Chilean government agency INIA, led a three-year project to help reverse the fate of the white strawberries. Even in these towns, Contulmo and Purén, it’s such a rare delicacy that a kilo goes for 22,000 Chilean pesos ($28) compared to just 2,000 pesos ($2.50) for the garden variety.ĭespite those prices, the market has been in steady decline. In fact, it’s grown only in the high hills of two neighboring towns in the Nahuelbuta Range. The white strawberry has all but disappeared from these places now, as well as from much of its historic range in central Chile. A print depicting a Fragaria chiloensis plant from Amédée François Frézier’s 1717 record of his travels. Historical records show that these conquistadors enjoyed this super-sweet fruit so much that they carried it to their new cities further north, planting the crop near Cuzco in Peru, Ambato in Ecuador, and Bogotá in Colombia. The fragrant aroma of the strawberries was also used to ward off the devil, or weukufu, who was believed to be repelled by all things sweet in the local mythology.ĭuring the Arauco War (1550-1656), the Mapuche planted strawberries to lure Spanish soldiers into traps where they could ambush them. In addition to eating them raw, the Mapuche would dry them like raisins, prepare them in fermented chicha, and use them for traditional medicines to combat diarrhea, dysentery, and indigestion, mainly using the calyx of the plant, wrote anthropologist Héctor Manosalva. The indigenous Mapuche were the first to cultivate the white strawberries, which they call kelleñ. In a cruel twist of fate, the garden strawberry arrived back in Chile in 1830 and slowly, over the decades, came to dominate local fields, nearly wiping out a crop that had been grown there for centuries. Three decades later, in Brittany, they were crossed with the Virginia strawberry ( Fragaria virginiana) of eastern North America to create the garden strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa) we all know today. A French spy by the name of Amedée François Frézier carried five specimens back to Europe in 1714. chiloensis) is the mother, of sorts, to the strawberry found in the cakes, ice creams, and yogurts in global supermarkets. The white strawberry ( Fragaria chiloensis subsp. Harvesting the white strawberries in Purén, Chile. It’s ironic, because the offspring these white strawberries spawned is everywhere: the large red strawberry that went off and conquered the world. You can barely find it outside of the two regions where it’s still grown. Despite its storied history in the nation, this native product is now on the brink of extinction. “It’s part of the identity of this community, where there remains, to this day, an air of romance about being a white strawberry farmer.”Īsk about the frutilla blanca anywhere else in Chile and people blink their eyes, bewildered, especially if they’re under the age of 40. “The white strawberries are like a link to our past,” explains Cristian Monsalve, the director of economic development for the Municipality of Purén, which has Chile’s largest concentration of white strawberry fields. The drink will become a staple at every gathering between Christmas and New Year in this tiny enclave-the only place in the world that still cultivates these berries at scale. The fragrant fruits, which have a pineapple-like fragrance, will find their way into custardy kuchen cakes, preserves, and, most importantly, clery, a sangria-like aperitif made with white wine. There will be white strawberry cooking competitions, beauty queen contests, and nightly folk music. In that brief time, these white strawberries-which turn a pale pink when ripe-will have two local festivals in their honor. Five weeks to make a year’s worth of profit. The dwindling number of aging farmers who still cultivate these frutillas blancas have just five weeks to comb these gardens and harvest their goods. It’s nearly Christmas in the foggy Nahuelbuta Range of south-central Chile and berries the size and color of ping-pong balls are ripening in small gardens that tumble down steep forested slopes.
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