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Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

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Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#11

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

walthamstow wrote: post #9

Given the writer lives in Britain she would do well to forget about farmed berries and forage for wild blackberries instead. Urban, suburban, rural, they're everywhere. They're bang in season at the moment and my wife and I are getting half a kilo (a pound) in about 40 mins of lazy picking in the mornings before work. They are absolutely delicious and freeze well for cakes, crumbles and such in the winter.

We have wild black raspberries all over. Enough that I was just wondering a few hours ago if it would be less effort to spray some with herbicide than take them out with the brushcutter.

Anyway, they are delicious, but we've had ridiculous amounts of rain this summer. All the rain seems to have made them flower and grow earlier than usual and die off much faster. Normally there's fruit for about a solid month. I think we barely got a week this hear :-(

Come to think of it, the wild plums are usually ripe at the end of August. I should go check that they aren't also ripening early, because they don't last long.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#12

Post by sdwr »

thagerty wrote: post #4

Who the hell writes this crap?

It's leisure-class over-analysis. For it to work, you have to be revealing something profound about the world, or analyzing the class gap itself (why some people don't have time to analyze).

This bit from Camus' The Plague has always stuck with me as analysis done right:

"He walks quickly. When crossing a street, he steps off the sidewalk without changing his pace, but two out of three times makes a little hop when he steps on to the sidewalk on the other side. He is absentminded and, when driving his car, often leaves his side-signals on after he has turned a corner. Always bareheaded. Looks knowledgeable."

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#13

Post by GloriousKoji »

hodgesrm wrote: post #10

It depends where you live. I'm in the Bay Area and strawberries are definitely not disappointing. In fact for several months of the year they are like food out of the Garden of Eden. You can recognize when they are in season by the uniform deep, crimson color of all the berries in the batch. And the price: cheap strawberries means there are a lot of them. We usually get Tomatero Farms strawberries. Driscolls is OK bu…

Driscolls is absolute garbage in my opinion. They always look pretty and are ubiquitous in many major markets but the taste has always been lacking.

The best strawberries in the Bay Area are from the Japanese-American farms. They're not beholden to the "Big Ag" lab grown berries Driscolls and actually taste good but they're extremely seasonal and sometimes hard to find.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#14

Post by RoyalHenOil »

TheCleric wrote: post #8

This is true for almost all modern fruit and vegetables. The varieties you can buy in most supermarkets have been selected for yield, hardiness in the field, and ability to be transported. Unless the farmer is niche, flavor doesn't even come into play as a factor. Add to that fact that transportation now includes going halfway across the world because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes t…

Don't forget that many have also been bred to be harvested out of season. There is a lot of money in being able to produce strawberries/tomatoes/etc. outside of peak strawberry/tonato/etc. season. They will taste awful, but people will still buy them — and they pay a premium for them, too.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#15

Post by vlark »

Find a strawberry farm near you that lets you "pick your own". Chances are these will be the best berries you taste that season. Same for any fruit or vegetables, really. There's a farm near me that does pick your own potatoes, asparagus, snap peas, etc. Barring that, buy directly from the farmer at a farmer's market or roadside stand on the edge of their property. The closer you can get from farm to table, the better the food will taste.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#16

Post by CoastalCoder »

TheCleric wrote: post #8

This is true for almost all modern fruit and vegetables. The varieties you can buy in most supermarkets have been selected for yield, hardiness in the field, and ability to be transported. Unless the farmer is niche, flavor doesn't even come into play as a factor. Add to that fact that transportation now includes going halfway across the world because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes t…

> because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes things even more complicated

I'd be interested to see an independent study of household preferences on this.

I suspect most people in my circle would prefer tasty, nutritious, local, and seasonal over the current situation.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#17

Post by TheCleric »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #16
TheCleric wrote: post #8

This is true for almost all modern fruit and vegetables. The varieties you can buy in most supermarkets have been selected for yield, hardiness in the field, and ability to be transported. Unless the farmer is niche, flavor doesn't even come into play as a factor. Add to that fact that transportation now includes going halfway across the world because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes t…

> because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes things even more complicated I'd be interested to see an independent study of household preferences on this. I suspect most people in my circle would prefer tasty, nutritious, local, and seasonal over the current situation.

I don’t have anything other than anecdotal evidence unfortunately. Most people I know don’t even think about seasonality, except as a possible cause of price fluctuations. Many people I know just say “I like X fruit or vegetable.” and will buy it if it’s a decent price.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#18

Post by bsder »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #16
TheCleric wrote: post #8

This is true for almost all modern fruit and vegetables. The varieties you can buy in most supermarkets have been selected for yield, hardiness in the field, and ability to be transported. Unless the farmer is niche, flavor doesn't even come into play as a factor. Add to that fact that transportation now includes going halfway across the world because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes t…

> because consumers want the fruit available all year long, and that makes things even more complicated I'd be interested to see an independent study of household preferences on this. I suspect most people in my circle would prefer tasty, nutritious, local, and seasonal over the current situation.

> I suspect most people in my circle would prefer tasty, nutritious, local, and seasonal over the current situation.

Your local monopsony grocery chain, however, does not. And they, not you, are the volume buyer who matters.

In addition, most consumers, very specifically, will buy uniformly colorful, firm, tasteless fruit over anything even slightly bruised.

About the best you can do as a consumer is try to find actual farmer's markets and spend your money locally.

Re: Why do strawberries seldom live up to their promise?

#20

Post by archagon »

hodgesrm wrote: post #10

It depends where you live. I'm in the Bay Area and strawberries are definitely not disappointing. In fact for several months of the year they are like food out of the Garden of Eden. You can recognize when they are in season by the uniform deep, crimson color of all the berries in the batch. And the price: cheap strawberries means there are a lot of them. We usually get Tomatero Farms strawberries. Driscolls is OK bu…

I’m in the Bay Area too. Sometimes they’re pretty good when in season, but very few compare to the candy-like strawberries I picked straight off the plant in my childhood. If I’m lucky, a couple of strawberries from a farmer’s market pint will remind me of those. (Same goes for tomatoes and cucumbers.)
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