Chinese Name Information

Chinese Valentine’s Day is on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month on the Chinese calendar, which falls on August 4th this year. Legend has it that the seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, a weaving maid, fell in love and married a cowherd. They were so much in love that they forgot everything else in their lives and didn’t complete their farming and weaving duties, which angered the Jade Emperor. He exiled them to opposite banks of the Silver River (Milky Way), and only allows them to meet each other once a year on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month.

This legend has been handed down for nearly two millennia. The Chinese people believe that the star, Vega, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu, and that Altair, on the western side of the Milky Way is Niu Lang waiting for his wife.

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the only Chinese festival devoted to love in the lunar calendar. Chinese Valentine’s Day traditions abound and this special day is celebrated differently depending on the Chinese province.

Some of the many traditions include Chinese girls preparing fruits, melons, and incense as offerings to Zhi Nu, the weaving maiden, praying to acquire high skills in needlecraft, as well as hoping to find satisfactory husbands. Girls place sewing needles on water. If the needle doesn’t sink, it’s a sign of the girl’s maturity and intelligence and she is ready and eligible to find a husband.

People in some Chinese provinces believe that decorating the horns of oxen with flowers will save them from catastrophe. Another tradition is for women to wash their hair to make it look fresh and shining.

On Chinese Valentine’s Day, young lovers go to the temple of the Matchmaker and pray for their love and happiness, and their possible marriage in China. In the evening, people sit outside to observe the stars. On this night, Vega and Altair are closer together than at any other time of year. Chinese grannies say that if you stand under a grapevine, you can probably overhear what Zhi Nu and Niu Lang are saying to one another.

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Jane S. Roseen is the Owner and President of Harmony Sweets. Harmony Sweets’ mission focuses on individual consumers purchasing gourmet chocolates from around the world for their friends and relatives and corporate gifting. Website: http://www.harmonysweets.com

Cloisonné is a unique combination of copper and porcelain working skills, traditional painting, sculpting, and etching skills. Originating in Beijing during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), cloisonné is an intricate process that requires many years of training for an artisan to master.

Cloisonné underwent a major change during the Ming Dynasty around 1426-1456 when a blue enamel was discovered, which gives cloisonné its gorgeous look, and is still used today. Ming Dynasty cloisonné is considered the most intricate.

Cloisonné pieces can be found in large objects, such as vases and other large utensils and decorative items, as well as small items like earrings, bracelets, chopsticks, or jars.

The Making of a Masterpiece

When visiting China, be sure to visit a cloisonné factory. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget. Cloisonné requires many hours of pain-staking labor, and Chinese artisans have mastered the entire process. It’s amazing to watch each of the artisans in deep concentration creating these beautiful pieces.

Step 1: Cloisonné Design

The first step in creating one of these lustrous cloisonné pieces is to create the design. Artists draw the design on a piece of paper, which is then handed off to the next artisan in the process.

Step 2: Base Hammering

In this step, copper sheets are hammered on to an enamel piece, whether it is a large vase or a small bracelet. The seams are sealed with copper solder and then the piece is put into a stove to weld it. This is a time-consuming step and must be done perfectly to achieve the desired effect.

Step 3: Copper Wire Curving

Unbeknownst to most people, cloisonné is not constructed of a single piece of enamel. It is constructed instead of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of small copper wires glued to the
copper base.

Workers shape a small red copper wire to make the design as the designer has instructed. These small, intricate designs can be birds, flowers, or any of hundreds of other types of designs. The wires are attached using small tweezers and pliers. The copper wires are then pasted on the surface of the copper body. Then another worker puts silver solder between the red copper wire and the red copper body. The piece is then put in the stove where the copper wires are welded onto the base.

Step 4: Enamel Filling

When cooled, workers polish the piece and then fill in the wire design with enamel materials according to the color design. Workers sit in front of a table using a small suction pipe to suck the enamel from the colored dishes into the pipe.

After filling the wires with enamel, workers absorb any remaining moisture with cotton. The piece is then put in a kiln for the first firing. During the firing process, the enamel shrinks. So when cooled, workers fill with more materials and fire again. This entire process is repeated three times until the enamel completely fills the copper wires.

Step 5: Polishing

The final step in this involved process is polishing. Workers use emery stone to polish the cloisonné until it is very smooth. They even up the color enamel material with the copper wire. If there are places where the enamel doesn’t quite match evenly with the copper wires, more enamel is added and the piece is fired again. The polishing process will begin again. Then a soft yellow stone is used to grind off any larger imperfections. Charcoal is used last to grind the piece to a high sheen.

Creating the gorgeous cloisonné pieces we see today takes time, patience, and ingenuity. Regardless of the type of cloisonné piece that you have, including trays for your favorite gourmet chocolates, it is sure to add beauty and elegance to your home or office.

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Jane S. Roseen is the Owner and President of Harmony Sweets. Harmony Sweets’ mission focuses on individual consumers purchasing gourmet chocolates from around the world for their friends and relatives and corporate gifting, all with best-in-class customer service. Website: http://www.harmonysweets.com

Chinese herbs have been used for both cooking and medicinal purposes for centuries now.

Chinese herbs have been used for cooking for many years now. However, they have also been widely used as a medicine and they have been thought to cure several health problems. However, the benefits of Chinese herbs have not yet been proven and so they are often referred to as ‘alternative medicines’.

Whether they work or not, the use of Chinese herbs in both cooking and healing has passed onto Western Countries. Now millions of people around the world use them and their popularity is showing no signs of slowing down.

How Chinese Herbs Were Traditionally Used

Chinese herbs were traditionally used for cooking. The Chinese people loved to cook their cuisine with herbs as they really helped to enhance the flavor. Due to their popularity, they were studied widely and the first ever Chinese herbalist was created and known as “Shennong”. Shennong is basically a mythical persona which is said to have tasted all of the Chinese herbs and reported back to agricultural people about the benefits and poisonous abilities that the herbs have.

A manual was created known as the “Shennong BencaoJing” and it contained around three hundred and sixty five medicines in it. Out of those, two hundred and fifty two of them were made from Chinese herbs. This was the first ever manual to be created on Chinese Herbs.

Why the Chinese Have a Love Affair with Herbs

When you look at the Chinese people, you will realize that they generally tend to live long, healthy lives. They have a fantastic diet and part of this is down to the herbs which they consume also.

When you look into a lot of chemical drugs, you will see that most of them have been derived from Chinese herbs. So from this you will realize that herbs obviously do help to take away the symptoms of some conditions. The Chinese generally believe that in order to live a healthy lifestyle, you need to eat well, exercise regularly and have a good selection of herbs readily on offer.

Overall herbs are respected for their obvious health benefits that the Chinese people have experienced first hand. They may have a slightly mythical past, but their popularity now just goes to show that they obviously work in some way. So whilst they are better known for being used for cooking, you may like to try them out the next time that you have a headache or a mild health complaint.

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Andrew Caxton is the editor of many articles on lawn care published at http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . For additional information on lawn tractors john deere garden tractors subjects have a lo

The Ginseng plant grows in rich woods throughout eastern and central North America, especially along the mountains from Quebec and Ontario, south to Georgia. It was used by the North American Indians. It is a smooth perennial herb, with a large, fleshy, very slow-growing root, 2 to 3 inches in length (occasionally twice this size) and from 1/2 to 1 inch in thickness. Its main portion is spindle-shaped and heavily annulated (ringed growth), with a roundish summit, often with a slight terminal, projecting point.

At the lower end of this straight portion, there is a narrower continuation, turned obliquely outward in the opposite direction and a very small branch is occasionally borne in the fork between the two. Some small rootlets exist upon the lower portion. The colour ranges from a pale yellow to a brownish colour. It has a mucilaginous sweetness, approaching that of liquorice, accompanied with some degree of bitterness and a slight aromatic warmth, with little or no smell. The stem is simple and erect, about a foot high, bearing three leaves, each divided into five finely-toothed leaflets, and a single, terminal umbel, with a few small, yellowish flowers. The fruit is a cluster of bright red berries.

To evaluate how “cold” or how “hot” in human body is a state of art. For instance, traditionally, the bitter melon was considered as a mild “Ying” or “cold” type of food. In Chinese medicine point of view, it will help fighting diseases caused by too much “Yang” or too “hot” in the body system. The water melon is considered as an extremely “cold” food. For people with serious illness resulting from “too hot” (such as stomach cancer), the water melon may cause adverse effect. Why? Think about putting hot water into iced cold glass that causes the glass to crack. The body will not be able to take it. The above is just a simple example of how Chinese medicine works and what the basic concept behind it was. It does not make sense to many scientists however; it does work in many cases.

There are several types of ginseng available: Asian ginseng, also called panax ginseng, American ginseng, Siberian ginseng and Japanese ginseng. Panax ginseng, which is grown especially in Korea, China and Japan, is the most widely used. American ginseng grows commonly in wooded areas from Quebec to Minnesota and south to Georgia and Oklahoma. Siberian ginseng grows in forests of Russia, China, Korea, and Japan.

Only Asian and American ginseng is known for their exceptional curative properties. These two species of ginseng look very similar and have also similar chemical compositions. These days, North American Ginseng is cultivated in British Colombia, Ontario, and Wisconsin, and is a valuable export. North American ginseng is often considered the most valuable and beneficial.
For the past few years, The Chinese government and the Taiwanese government spend a great deal of resources trying to figure out “how it works” and “why it works”.

There will be many years before people are able to completely figure out what make Chinese medicine works. The Chinese do not know either. Not yet and not completely anyway, but they will find out..

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Jin Huang has an interest in Chinese Culture related subjects. If you are interesting in finding out more information on Chinese Culture, please visit this successful Chinese Cooking site: http://chinesefood.smartreviewguide.com

Honoring the ancient family ancestors is continuously a significant custom because Chinese people believe their ancestors can give them guidance on peaceful living; this is why they give their monuments some offerings. Additionally, stone tablets in a silent temple are for the family’s grave sites, whereas the tablets that Chinese use to worship their ancestors and are commonly found in a Chinese home, are entirely made of hard wood. The interesting Chinese people are also fond of different luck symbols such as what can be found in this movie: the little Lucky Cricket, the apple, and the beads of precious jade. Until today, enthusiastic Chinese people still apply these traditional Chinese beliefs. This is also one best reason why China keeps on attracting visitors and spectators to study about their ancient culture and history.

There are also myths that some people believe about chopsticks. Uneven length means you’ll miss your plane, train, or boat, while crossed chopsticks suggest that you’ve already paid the bill or you’re finished with your meal. It is important to use your chopsticks properly; don’t drop the sticks or this may cause bad luck, according to a famous Chinese superstition. The Chinese are so good with their chopsticks that it’s fun and exciting to watch them while dining. Yet, foreigners may feel awkward at first and try to fumble for their Chinese food. But not to worry, a few techniques may help you get along with chopsticks. The basic thing is to hold one stick in stationary place and let the other work and move along with your index finger. Pressure must concentrate on upper chopstick until you keep the other end steady. The most common problem is using chopsticks with rice. You can place the bowl near your mouth or might as well use your hand to scoop some piece of rice — these are not considered bad manners at all.

Crispy, light, and tasty, fortune cookies used to play a big role in the early Chinese revolution. In the 13th century, when Chinese territory was invaded by Mongols, revolutionary leaders baked some moon cakes not to offer retreat from the enemies but to trick their way into winning the battle. Chu Yuan Chang, who was concealed as one Taoist missionary priest, circulated forbidden messages hidden via the lotus paste of moon cakes. Because Mongols did not have a favored craving for lotus paste, they did not trace the plan. The rebel warriors soon took advantage of their weakness and succeeded in winning the battle. Secret messages in moon cakes were then found inside the fortune cookies; eventually, through these treats, Chinese workers of American railways tried to inspire some of their friends with happy quotes.

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To learn more about Chinese culture and Chinese beliefs visit http://www.exploring-china.com

In any single month, more than 10,000 people search for the “Chinese alphabet” on the internet.

Question is:

Does the Chinese language have an alphabet?

If so, where is it?

Why don’t I “see” it?

To answer the above questions, let’s look at how Chinese writing evolved over the ages.

At the beginning, societies created symbols to refer to simple things.

Symbols are signs and pictures that refer to actual objects.

The earliest symbols looked like the things they represented.

For instance, the symbol for “bird” looked like a bird.

Same for “mountain”, “tree”, “rain”, “child”, “knife”, “boat”.

As time went by, societies grew bigger and became complex.

Naturally, the meanings of visual symbols changed as well.

Symbols not only stood for physical things, but for more abstract things as well.

Like “sunrise”, “friend”, “pray”, “play”, “safe”, “year” etc.

As a culture took shape, a written language made up of letters (i.e. the alphabet) was invented.

A sound was attached to each letter so a string of letters could be pronounced.

Symbols were thus replaced by words and phrases as the primary means of communication.

Usually, that’s what happened with written languages.

But not so with the Chinese language.

A Chinese alphabet was never invented.

Rather, the evolution of the Chinese language took a special turn:

Instead of visual symbols being replaced by a written language of letters, the symbols themselves became the written language.

That’s why there’s no Chinese alphabet.

One of the reasons for this is that the Chinese language is tonal.

This means there are several tones and each tone means a different thing.

For instance, in Mandarin there are four tones.

Cantonese has six tones.

In addition, words with the same tones often have different meanings.

And their meanings can only be made clear by the context of the sentence.

This unique feature of the Chinese language gives rise to “visual puns”.

The interplay of phonetics (i.e. sounds) and puns often reveal the hidden meanings of Chinese symbols or characters.

Phonetics and puns give clues to the hidden meaning of images.

Hence a picture of a fish is an expression of “abundance” because the Chinese word for “fish” yu2 ? has the same sound as “abundance” yu2 ? .

This is an example of a “visual pun” and there are lots of them in the Chinese language.

It’s easy to see why there is no such thing as a “full Chinese alphabet” or “Chinese alphabet letters”.

Or why the Chinese alphabet is “missing”.

An alphabet consists of a small number of letters (e.g. 26 in English) which make up all the words in the spoken language.

There are no letters in Chinese writing.

Only thousands of individual symbols or characters each with their specific sound(s) and meanings.

Since there are no letters in Chinese it naturally follows there is no Chinese alphabet.

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Want to learn Chinese for pleasure and profit in less time? Like to creatively enhance your life with Chinese characters and symbols? Liow Kah Joon is your guide. Sign up for his free Chinese Symbols ezine at http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com.

Spend any time on the Shanghai metro and you’ll be impressed not just by its efficiency and cleanliness, but also by the number of thumbs racing over mobile phones, sending text messages to friends. While texting has yet to take off in the United States, where the low price of local calls makes it easy to just dial and talk, in China, SMS messages are all the rage.

(And if you’re wondering how people send text messages in a country with no alphabet and more than 50,000 characters, it’s actually easier – and faster – than you might think. Subscribers write in pinyin, a Romanization of Chinese, and then choose the character they want from a list. It’s fast and accurate.)

But it’s not just messaging that makes China’s mobile phone subscribers happy. Mobile users in the People’s Republic are also enthusiastic down loaders of color ring-back tones, tunes that play while the dialer is waiting for the call recipient to answer. General ringtones are popular too, giving cell phone providers and Internet sites plenty of reasons to smile.

In fact, China Mobile’s color ring-back tones and other services gave it revenues of 6.99 billion Yuan (US$872 million) last year, more than 2.5 times the amount generated the year before. It’s not surprising then that Chinese Internet companies too are scrambling to load up on tunes for users to download.

Although China’s population is well over a billion, much of the country’s new prosperity is on the east coast. Mobile phone use however, is popular everywhere. China has a relatively low rate of mobile phone use on a per capita basis but by virtue of a population exceeding 1.29 billion it is reviewed as the world’s number two mobile phones market, only second to the US with more than 75 million subscribers.

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Sandy Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT and serves as Account Manager of Funtonia.com (mobile phone enhancement service and ringtones provider).

When people in the west speak of Chinese food, they probably mean Cantonese food. It’s the best known and most popular variety of Chinese food. Cantonese food is noted for the variety and the freshness of it’s ingredients. The food are usually stir-fried with just a touch of oil to ensure that the result is crisp and fresh. All those best known ‘western Chinese’ dishes fit into this category – sweet and sour dishes, won ton, chow mein, spring rolls.

With Cantonese food the more people you can muster for the meal the better, because dishes are traditionally shared so everyone will manage to sample the greatest variety. A corollary of this is that Cantonese food should be balance: traditionally, all foods are said to be either Yin (cooling) – like vegetables, most fruits and clear soup; or Yang (heaty) – like starchy foods and meat. A cooling food should be balance with a heaty food and too much of one it would not be good for you.

Another Cantonese specialty is Dim Sum or ‘little heart’. Dim sum is usually consumed during lunch or as a Sunday brunch. Dim sum restaurant are usually large, noisy affair and the dim sum, little snacks that come in small bowls, are whisked around the tables on individual trolleys or carts. As they come by , you simply ask for a plate of this or a bowl of that. At the end the meal you are billed is the amount of empty containers on your table.

Beijing (Peking) food is, of course best known for the famous ‘Peking Duck’. Beijing food are less subtle than Cantonese food. Beijing food is usually eaten with hot steamed bun or with noodles, because rice is not grown in cold region of the north. But in Malaysia, it is more likely to come with rice.

Shanghai food are not easily found in Malaysia. Since most of Malaysia’s Chinese are from the south, particularly from Hainan and Hakka it is quite easy to find food from this region. Throughout Malaysia one of the most widespread economical meal is the Hainanese Chicken Rice which cost around the figure of RM3.00.

The Hainanese also produced steamboat, sort of Oriental variation of the Swiss Fondue, where you have a boiling stockpot in the middle of the table into which you deep pieces of meat, seafood and vegetable.

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Jin Huang has an interest in Chinese Culture related subjects. If you are interesting in finding out more information on Chinese Culture, please visit this successful Chinese Cooking site: http://chinesefood.smartreviewguide.com

There’s more to Chinese cuisine than meets the taste buds. There is also what meets the eye, the ear and the imagination. Chinese culture demands attention to the entire presentation of a meal, and that includes the blend of flavors, the subtlety of the spicing, how appealing the colors and arrangement of the food is and how well it plays on the imagination of the diner. This is a concept that is as foreign to most Westerners as an appreciation for the nuance of a single brushstroke in an ideograph. To the Chinese, though, the name of a dish plays its own part in the presentation when they serve a meal to guests.

The subtlety is lost on most Americans, who’d rather know what’s going to be on their plate than enjoy a bit of imagery with their meal. Some of the most common names survive – Seven Happiness, a dish that includes shrimp, lobster, scallop, fish, pork, beef and chicken in a delicate sauce with vegetables, for instance. Seven happiness indeed – what mouth wouldn’t be happy with that?

In China, however, many honored and respected restaurants still cling to the old traditions. At the Confucius House, for instance, one can dine on Two Phoenix from One Egg, An Oriole Welcoming Spring and As Luck As One Wishes. The Fangshan Restaurant in Beihai Park serves Phoenix in Its Nest and “Frog and Abalone”. The Fangshan Restaurant has also revived an ancient tradition – the complete Manchu-Han Banquet. Created during the Qing Dynasty as a celebration of important events, the Manchu-Han Banquet consists of 234 hot dishes, 28 cold dishes, cakes and fruit. Such a lavish spread is it that it often is held over the course of several days.

It was during the Northern and Southern Dynasties that the practice of giving poetic names to dishes truly flourished. While many dishes were named simply for their appearance, many others included a play on words in their names – subtle references to the ingredients wrapped in a beautiful title. Thus, a dish of shredded fish with orange might be called ‘powdered gold and minced jade”. Shrimp with green peas and scallions might bear the name ‘Coral, Pearl and Jade’. Some were far more fanciful – and in some cases descriptive of the elaborate preparation that turned a plate of food into a landscape or a scene from history. One such dish is chicken and soft-shelled turtle, served in its shell and named “the Conqueror says goodbye to his concubine”.

It’s only fitting that Hunan cuisine, generally considered to be the most visually appealing of the Chinese regional cuisines, should also feature the most fanciful and delightful names. Who cares what the ingredients are when your host serves you ‘Footsteps of the Phoenix’ and “Pearls in the Snow”? They are truly names fit for the dishes that graced the tables of emperors.

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Kirsten Hawkins is a food and nutrition expert specializing the Mexican, Chinese, and Italian food. Visit http://www.food-and-nutrition.com/ for more information on cooking delicious and healthy meals.

The Chinese Strawberry Tree (Chinese Mulberry Tree), Cudrania tricuspidata, has been extensively planted in American because of its huge potential for bearing unique red strawberries that, once picked from the tree, have the appearance of a giant raspberry. The Chinese Strawberry fruit is more rounded than a mulberry, which is usually elongated. The Chinese Strawberry Tree is sometimes called a Chinese mulberry, because in China, the strawberry tree leaf looks like a miniature version of a mulberry tree leaf. The strawberry tree leaves in China are used to feed silk worms for the Chinese silk trade, like the mulberry leaf has been used for many centuries for the same purpose. In China, the Chinese strawberry fruit is sold in grocery stores, where the berry has a shelf life comparable to the red raspberry. Having only been grown in American for less than 80 years, the Chinese strawberry tree is relatively unknown except for fruit explorers and research hybridizers.

Several cultivar strains of the Chinese strawberry tree are distributed in the United States: one that is monoecious (male and female on the same plant) and the other dicecious (distinct male plants and distinct female plants).

Only one internet plant nursery site offers Chinese strawberry trees that require only one tree for strawberry fruit formation, but other sites offer Chinese strawberry trees that require male and female trees to be planted to grow a crop of strawberries.

Young trees of Chinese strawberry trees grow numerous thorns on the branches, but amazingly, the thorns fall off the twigs and tree trunk as the dense bark hardens and expands with age.

The strawberry fruit resembles a large red raspberry and can grow as large as a half-dollar. Generally as the tree ages, the size of the red strawberries increases as well as the strawberry numbers in the giant clusters. The weight of the red strawberry fruit clusters is so great at harvest time that the branches become weeping in form, resulting in easy-to-pick strawberry fruit. The Chinese strawberry tree is extremely productive as it matures, and a 15 year old tree can grow 20 bushels of strawberry fruits on a 40 foot tree. The strawberry tree appears to be reliable in fruit production year after year. The strawberry crop is picked by hand on younger trees, and as the strawberry fruit grows higher in the upper limbs of the trees, the branches can be shook to harvest the berry crop on sheets or canvases placed underneath the tree.

The flower of the Chinese strawberry fruit is unique—a blend of tastes and aromas from ripe fig, mulberry, Japanese persimmon, and even cantelope. The fully ripe Chinese Strawberry will develop a deep red transparency with hints of blue or purple when it is at its sweetest taste. The strawberry fruit can be eaten ripe from the tree, or it can be made into cobblers, pies, shortcakes, jams, jellies, or fermented into a red wine.

The Chinese strawberry fruit develops from small white flowers in April and grows rapidly as it ripens within large clusters of 8-10 berries. The fruit within the cluster ripens unevenly, like the ground strawberry, and begins maturing in July, ready to be harvested from the tree as late as September.

The Chinese Strawberry Tree is very easy to plant and grow and is generally sold as a bare-root dormant tree in the fall and winter. The strawberry tree can be adaptable in practically any type of soil and is highly drought tolerant and resistant to cold weather, where it has survived temperatures of -20*F in Chicago, Illinois to fruit prolifically the following summer. The young trees often require several years of growing to produce strawberry fruit; a 6-8 foot strawberry tree can grow berries the first year of planting, if you buy a larger tree to plant. The strawberry tree is vigorous when watered and coached with liquid fertilizer.

Once established to grow vigorously, the leaf cover is dense and can completely block out street noise and the sight of neighbors. The canopy of the tree can extend 40 feet wide, and the tree can grow 40 feet tall. The root system spreads rapidly outwards from the trunk, the same 40 foot spread of the canopy. The Chinese strawberry tree, when dormant, can be easily transplanted from one location in the landscape garden to another, unlike most other fruit trees. A giant Chinese strawberry tree was growing across the street from the post office at Sea Island, Georgia, until new construction and expansion of the Cloister Hotel removed it in 2006. That tree grew literally tons of strawberry fruit every year since Sea Island was established in 1928. The tree was single trunked, measuring 2 feet in diameter at the ground and growing 40 feet tall with dense dormitory shade on the west side of the building that reduced air conditioning costs in the sultry afternoons.

Every grower of rare plants should have the Chinese strawberry tree growing in his fruit orchard or home garden. Great interest has been shown in the horticulture research developers to adapt this vegetatively propagated tree into financial ventures for distribution of the Chinese strawberry fruit to American grocery markets—a berry with a larger size and better shelf life than the red-raspberry. The gigantic fruiting potential of a Chinese strawberry planting could also offer food and shade for domestic animals and a source of inexpensive food for wildlife.

The Other Strawberry Tree from Europe—Arbutus unedo

The Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, originated in Europe where it grows wild in many countries. The strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, was introduced last century into America as a curiosity plant to study for the use of human consumption. The strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, grows into a small tree or large shrub with waxy, shiny, green leaves and white flowers. The strawberry fruit is red when mature, round, and has a tolerable taste to some growers and an unacceptable one to others. The fruit of the strawberry tree may be eaten fresh, cooked as pudding, jelly, or fermented into wine. The strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo, has been grown in some strates other than southern California, but it is not as cold hardy (Zone 8-11) as the Chinese strawberry tree, nor as productive in berry crops. The European strawberry fruit is loved by birds and some wildlife.

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Visit TyTy Nursery to purchase the trees mentioned in this article, or many others that you may be looking for!