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  • From: Graeme Gerrard <ggerrard AT resonant.com.au>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] strawberry flavor
  • Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 22:32:05 +1100

We grew 10 varieties here when we started - to see which tasted best. We dug in 5 of them because, in our situation at any rate, they had no flavour.
We grow really great tasting berries, but I don't think it is just the variety. I think it has to do with organic management and picking the fruit ripe. Older people come in and often say things like "I haven't had strawberries like that since I was a child in Russia/Poland".
Young people - and not too many of them come in, but they have never had a ripe strawberry before in their lives.

We had a conventional strawberry grower visit not that long ago. He grew only a variety called Chandler. We have grown it too and it has no flavour or is actually unpleasant until it is completely ripe - then it can be delicious. He talked about the plant growth and the soil and the way the different berries grew. I kept saying "try this one - what do you think of the flavour?" He didn't eat a single berry. He wasn't interested in flavour - not at all! Appearance, keeping ability and transportability were the only things he talked about and seemed to consider.

The varieties from the University of California breeding program Cal Giants. Also Gaviotta and old variety from the UK called Cambridge Rival are good for us. But there are over 400 varieties available in the US so there must be plenty to choose from.

Graeme

On 14/02/2005, at 3:10 PM, road's end farm wrote:


On Feb 13, 2005, at 10:10 AM, Tradingpost wrote:


I don't know strawberriy growing, and I'm wondering what they've done to
make supermarket strawberries so tasteless. Is it the bred varieties or the
harvesting, fertilizer, or what?

I think it's mostly the varieties. There are some varieties bred for large size and very firm berries to stand up to shipping; they're not bred for flavor. They've often been picked unripe, too.

Once when I was handing out taste samples at market I had a woman get upset. She got strawberry juice on her shirt when she bit into the berry and said to me, in a tone of great indignation, "These strawberries are *juicy*!" I was baffled and said something like, "well yes they're juicy, they're strawberries." (Not great marketing technique, I know.) Some time later I bought a pint at the supermarket out of sheer curiosity and then I understood. Not only were they tasteless, they weren't juicy at all; they were crisp and hard, like an unripe apple. She must have been eating those, and thought that they were normal.

I did once trial a variety, a year or two after that, that had a similar texture and (lack of) flavor, though not quite as bad. I tilled them back in; I wouldn't take them to market. Since then I approach with great caution any strawberry variety described as "extra firm" or "good shipper".

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale

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