There is no fruit more closely bound to the British summer than the strawberry. Bright, glossy and unmistakably sweet, it arrives each year alongside Wimbledon, cream teas and long afternoons spent outdoors, its appearance so tightly woven into the season that it has become something close to a national ritual. For a fruit so small, the strawberry carries a remarkable weight of tradition. Wild strawberries have grown across Europe, Asia and the Americas for thousands of years