Colonial Days in Old New York by Alice Morse Earle

Daniel Denton, one of the original settlers of Jamaica, Long Island, wrote "A briefe Description of New York" in 1670. When he speaks of the "fruits natural to the island" of Long Island, he ends his account thus: --

"Such abundance of strawberries is in June that the fields and woods are dyed red; which the country people perceiving, instantly arm themselves with bottles of wine, cream, and sugar, and instead of a coat of Mail every one takes a Female upon his Horse behind him, and so rushing violently into the fields, never leave till they have disrobed them of their red colors and turned them into the old habit."