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Tortona strawberries are a local cultivar belonging to the Fragaria moscata species, selecting wild species in the area one century ago.

Native to the forests of central Europe, this type of strawberry is larger than the wild one (Fragaria vesca), but smaller than the common varieties on the market.
Slightly bigger than a raspberry, dark red on the outside with a light red-veined pulp, it has an intense aroma of Muscat and tastes sweet and delicate.

On the other hand, it is very perishable and has to be consumed on the day of the harvest; therefore, it is almost impossible to find outside its production area.
It is also available only for ten days a year, between mid-May and the end of June, depending on the harvest.
The first written records about this type of strawberry date back to 1411 when the Register of Pieve di Garbagna mentioned “magiostre” or “fravole” among the local fruit and vegetables.
In 1631, a road built near the church of San Rocco was called “Fragolaria”, clearly evoking this particular cultivation in the area.
It was actually identified and selected in the XX century and in the 1930s it became the most important asset of the local economy.

The city administration even built an indoor market, the “Gabbione”, to accommodate hundreds of enthusiast buyers: on some evenings, up to 1 tonne of strawberries would be sold in their typical baskets made of woven wooden strips.

The Second World War and then motorway development as well as many new residential areas dramatically shrunk the arable fields, thus the production of this type of strawberry was put under the protection of a special consortium (“Consorzio per la Valorizzazione e la Tutela della Fragola di Tortona”) and officially labelled as a Slow Food Presidium.
Luckily, new crops have been recently established in the municipality of Tortona and in the province of Alessandria.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)