In the Nahuelbuta Range of south-central Chile, beautiful strawberries are ripening in small gardens on the forested slopes. The dwindling number of aging farmers who still cultivate these frutillas blancas have just five weeks to harvest their goods. In that brief time, these white strawberries will turn a pale pink when ripe.
“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. “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.”
Unfortunately the frutilla blanca is now on the brink of extinction. You can barely find it outside of the two regions where it’s still grown. It’s ironic, because the offspring these white strawberries (Fragaria chiloensis subsp. chiloensis) spawned is everywhere: the large red strawberry.
The white strawberry has all but disappeared from these places now, as well as from much of its historic range in central Chile. In fact, it’s grown only in the high hills of two neighboring towns in the Nahuelbuta Range. 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.
Source: atlasobscura.com
