Holiday Calendar

National Strawberry Month

Next celebratedSaturday, May 1, 2027

A food observance held throughout May celebrating the strawberry at the peak of the US harvest, its flavor, history, and place in American agriculture.

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Last updated February 26, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of May
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYFood
SUBCATEGORYFruit
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A May tradition with no named author.

No primary record identifies who first designated May as National Strawberry Month or when. The observance circulates as an informal US produce-industry and seasonal promotion at the peak of the domestic harvest, reinforced by recurring state proclamations and by USDA and the California Strawberry Commission.

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INTRO

The fruit that wears its seeds, and barely existed 250 years ago

The strawberry on your shortcake is younger than the United States. Every modern garden strawberry descends from a single 18th-century cross between a wild North American species and a wild Chilean one. A teenage French botanist named the result in 1766, working in the royal gardens at Versailles.

National Strawberry Month lands in May for a plain reason: that is when American strawberries arrive. The fruit you see piled at markets all month is at the front of its season. Oddly, the berry has a sharper birthday than its holiday does.

And the thing you are eating is stranger than it looks. Botanically, a strawberry is not a berry at all. The red flesh is a swollen flower part, and the tiny specks people call seeds are the real fruits, riding on the outside.

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ORIGINS

Strawberry Month history

INTRODUCTION

The holiday celebrates a crop with a short, well-documented past. The strawberry people eat today is not an ancient food. It is a hybrid that did not exist before the 1700s, and its story runs through a spy, a teenager, and a royal garden.

CHAPTER 01

A spy carries a strawberry across an ocean

Wild strawberries grew on several continents for ages, but they were small. The change began with the larger Chilean species, Fragaria chiloensis.

A French military engineer, Amedee-Francois Frezier, brought plants of it back from Chile around 1714. He described the fruit as large as walnuts. His cargo would help reshape what a strawberry could be.

CHAPTER 02

A teenager names the modern berry

Back in Europe, the Chilean species ended up growing beside the North American Fragaria virginiana. The two cross-pollinated, and a new, large-fruited plant appeared.

A young botanist, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, worked out what it was. In 1766 he identified the garden strawberry as that hybrid and published his findings. He was about 19. His name still rides in the species name, Fragaria x ananassa Duchesne.

From there, countries bred their own regional varieties through the 1800s, and the hybrid spread into the fruit now sold by the ton.

CHAPTER 03

Why May, and why no founder

The observance itself has no documented author. No federal proclamation and no congressional resolution establishes National Strawberry Month, and no archive names a first year or a creator.

What the record does show is real-world footprint. The month tracks the US harvest, and it is reinforced at the state level: North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper formally proclaimed May 2020 as Strawberry Month, calling the fruit the first sign of warm-weather crops. USDA and the California Strawberry Commission promote it each May.

So the holiday is best understood as a seasonal industry tradition, not an act of law. The strawberry has a precise birthday. Its month does not.

TIMELINE

Timeline

A spy brings the Chilean berry

Amedee-Francois Frezier carries the large-fruited Fragaria chiloensis from Chile back to France.

The hybrid gets a name

Antoine Nicolas Duchesne identifies the garden strawberry as a hybrid at Versailles and publishes his findings.

Regional varieties spread

Countries breed their own strawberry varieties through the 19th century, building the modern crop.

A fumigant is retired

Methyl bromide, used in California strawberry fields for decades, is phased out at year's end under the Montreal Protocol.

A four-billion-dollar crop

US strawberry production rises to 32.2 million hundredweight worth $4.00 billion, up 12 percent in volume.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Strawberry Month by the Numbers

~90%
US strawberries grown in California
32.2M cwt
US strawberries grown in 2024
$4.00B
US strawberry crop value, 2024
~200
Achenes on a single strawberry
7.9 lbs
Fresh strawberries eaten per American, 2013 record

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Strawberry Month

ECONOMY

A $4 billion crop, and May is when it arrives.

US strawberry production reached $4.00 billion in 2024, up 13 percent in value over the prior year. Strawberries rank among the three most valuable noncitrus fruit crops in the country.

GEOGRAPHY

One state grows almost all of them

California grows about 90 percent of the strawberries produced in the United States. The May season the month celebrates is largely a California season.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Strawberry Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Buy at the peak of the season

May is when US strawberries are at the front of their harvest. Pick up a flat at a farmers market or grocer while they are local and in season.

VISIT

Visit a pick-your-own farm

Many strawberry farms open their rows to the public in late spring. Spend a morning picking your own and taste the difference of fruit eaten the day it is harvested.

LOOK

Look closely at the seeds

Examine a strawberry and study the specks dotting its surface. Each one is a tiny true fruit, a botanical quirk worth seeing up close.

COOK

Cook a simple strawberry dish

Make shortcake, jam, or just sliced berries with cream. A recipe that lets the fruit stay the star suits a peak-season month best.

LEARN

Learn where your berries grow

Read up on how the modern strawberry was bred and where the crop comes from today. The California Strawberry Commission and USDA both publish background on the harvest.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Strawberry Month?

1 / 7

Botanically, what kind of fruit is a strawberry?

Answer

It runs throughout May, the start of the US strawberry season. The fruit is at the front of its harvest all month.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

9sources
5primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service2025-05
Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2024 Summary
2024 US strawberry data: 32.2 million cwt produced, valued at $4.00 billion.
View source
California Strawberry Commission
About the California Strawberry Commission
California grows about 90 percent of US strawberries across more than 40,000 acres.
View source
California Department of Food and Agriculture2026-05
May is National Strawberry Month!
State recognition of the May observance and California's leading harvest figures.
View source
Office of the Governor of North Carolina2020-04
Strawberry Month 2020 proclamation
A 2020 state proclamation declaring May Strawberry Month in North Carolina.
View source
USDA Economic Research Service2014-12
U.S. strawberry consumption continues to grow
Per-capita fresh strawberry use reached a record 7.9 pounds in 2013.
View source
Additional coverage
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Strawberry
The strawberry as an 18th-century hybrid and an accessory fruit, not a true berry.
View source
Clemson University Home and Garden Information Center
Strawberries: Heart-Seeded Berries Strewn About the World
Frezier's Chilean strawberry, the cross that made the modern fruit, and the achene count.
View source
University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension
The Tiny Strawberry is Packed with Vitamin C, Fiber, Antioxidants, and More
About eight strawberries supply more vitamin C than an orange.
View source
UF/IFAS Extension2014
An Overview of the US and Mexico Strawberry Industries
Industry overview placing the US among the top strawberry-producing countries.
View source
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