Strawberry Cake

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Strawberries have been known since the time of the Greeks and Romans. Wild American berries and French Strawberries were crossbred as early as 1624. Commercial strawberry growing began in America about 1800 near the largest eastern cities. Strawberries moved west with the pioneers and were reportedly grown near Vancouver, Washington at the Hudson Bay Post in 1836.

In 1846, Henderson Luelling traveled with his family from Iowa to Oregon by wagon train, with two extra wagon loads of fruit and nut trees and berry plants. Luelling’s plants thrived in the fertile Willamette Valley, and he opened a nursery in Milwaukee, Oregon in 1850. By 1870 he was advertising the Wilson variety of strawberries, which had been developed by James Wilson of New York, but were more suited to the Oregon climate. This variety helped establish the emerging strawberry industry in the Northwest, which was looked upon at the time as a stop gap measure until the larger fruit trees planted in the Hood River area could come to maturity. The first canneries were pioneered by Asa Lovejoy in Oregon City in 1870 and began processing and shipping berries across the country.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s Oregon farmers grew 90 to 100 million pounds of strawberries. Marshalls and Northwests continued to be the most widely grown berries.In fact, in the 1950’s the “Five Ton Club” was created to encourage berry farmers to grow even higher yields of the Marshall variety. Only a small percentage of farmers succeeded in reaching the goal of 5 tons of Marshalls per acre. This quote from the Sunday Oregonian, August 7, 1955 shows that some things never change. “Three years ago, when the council launched its ‘Five Ton Club” program, Oregon’ strawberry industry was in a gloomy frame of mind, predictions were heard on all sides that California, with its fantastic yields of up to 20 tons an acre, soon would drive Oregon out of business.”

By the 1970’s California had a large and growing strawberry industry. Although Oregon berries were far superior in taste and texture and unrivaled in qualities for canning and freezing, the California farmers were able to produce between 20 and 30 tons an acre compared to the 5 tons an acre grown by Oregon farmers. This began to drastically affect the market for Oregon berries.

By www.oregon-strawberries.org/history

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Strawberry Cake

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

1 (18.5 oz) box french vanilla cake mix

1 (16 oz) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and mashed

1 (3 oz) box strawberry flavored instant gelatin

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups confectioners sugar, for the glaze

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bundt pan. In a mixing bowl, add strawberries and mash, then add cake mix, gelatin, eggs and vegetable oil. Mix well. Pour into prepare bundt pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then cool completely on cooling rack. Enjoy!

Glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons water, more if needed (add just a little at a time)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together. Drizzle over top of cool cake. Enjoy!