Strawberries Sold By Shops

[Athos]

The ones sold in the market, or by people who know what a ripe mango should taste like, tend to be better.

I guess that's a big part of it. I know what non-commercial native species should and can taste like, which has spoiled me for the supermarkets' pale imitations. And, as much as I can taste the difference when I eat some of the tropical fruit in the Caribbean, I haven't grown up with it in the same way.

 

[Greebo]

The season only lasts for so long so one has to make the best of it.

Agreed - ever had them mashed up in a sandwich for breakfast?

 

[mrs quoad]

The ones sold in the market, or by people who know what a ripe mango should taste like, tend to be better.

Our market seems to sell genuinely shit fruit. Cheap n cheerful, but pretty much always un-named varieties, and that usually seems to be FOR A VERY GOOD REASON.

It's very rare to find it passably ripe, too.

 

[bi0boy]

Our market seems to sell genuinely shit fruit. Cheap n cheerful, but pretty much always un-named varieties, and that usually seems to be FOR A VERY GOOD REASON.

The coffee and tea is shit there too. Only the cake man delivers.

I'm sure there's a gap in the market in Cambridge for poncy fruit, if only someone would fill it.

 

[mrs quoad]

The coffee and tea is shit there too.

I once asked him if he knew the roast date on his beans. The WHAT? He said

I asked him what he'd recommend for filter. CONTINENTAL BLEND, he said.

From cup to bin, do not pass go, do not collect £200. Shockingly bad

I only went bc my supervisor swore by him

 

[Greebo]

Our market seems to sell genuinely shit fruit. Cheap n cheerful, but pretty much always un-named varieties, and that usually seems to be FOR A VERY GOOD REASON.

It's very rare to find it passably ripe, too.

The markets in Watford and St Albans not only sold ripe (and named variety) fruit & veg, but a lot of the stallholders would give you a choice of whether you wanted it ripe enough to eat today, or whether you wanted to be able to keep it for a couple of days. I hope it's still like that.

 

[mrs quoad]

M&S Driscolls Lusa today.

Bleeehhh. Not awful, but - tbh - within a gnat's whisker of El Santa. tbf, these have two days of 'shelf-life' left, and they're looking like they might benefit from a day or so to rest. So I might return to them for a re-evaluation tomorrow.

The least impressive Driscoll variant I've tasted to date. And Stephen Long - the grower M&S blame for this particular punnett - also produces Jubilees for them, I'm pretty sure.

I may write him an irritated-but-curious missive.

e2a: oh, oh, hang on a sec. I've just had a mahoosive mommajammer, and it was extremely acceptable. I'm minded to think these strawberries have yet to flourish.

Also, the Mara del Bois are looking very promising. Flowering nicely, couple of little green fruits beginning to winkle through.

 

[mrs quoad]

M&S Driscolls Lusa today.

update: pissing awful. One in five is genuinely agreeable. Two in five have gone too far & are sour, watery piss. Two in five are underripe & are flavourless intimations of El Santa off cuts.

Won't be buying them again!

 

[crustychick]

update: pissing awful. One in five is genuinely agreeable. Two in five have gone too far & are sour, watery piss. Two in five are underripe & are flavourless intimations of El Santa off cuts.

Won't be buying them again!

I think you should write that letter to the farmer mrs q! I'd be interested to see what he says

 

[mrs quoad]

I think you should write that letter to the farmer mrs q! I'd be interested to see what he says

Driscoll turn out to be a company (!)

Tbf, these Lusa were stocked side by side with el santa, and Driscoll's notes on them describe them primarily in terms of predictable yield. So I suspect the farmer wouldn't be unduly surprised.

 

[bi0boy]

I notice M&S are selling "Elsanta Strawberry Yogurt", as if they think there is a general perception that Elsanta is in some way superior to the mundane varieties of strawberries normally used in yogurts.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Got some really luscious ones in Brixton Market from my favourite Market traders. A lot for a quid. As good as ones I grow myself but they didn't know the variety.
The stall at around one minute forty seconds on here.

 

[bi0boy]

If anyone wants an idea of what it would be like to lose all sense of smell and taste try the 'marvel' variety of strawberries sold to me by my local Asda yesterday.

 

[mrs quoad]

Got a couple of handfuls of Mara del Bois this year! And they're shooting out a tonne of shooters.

The early ones'd clearly suffered from a lack of sun, but as they came on they were very nice. Stopping short of superlatives atm, because - tbh - this year they weren't superlative. Just very nice. But fingers crossed, with another year, a healthy feed, and a bit more sun, they'll get there!

 

[RubyToogood]

Got a couple of handfuls of Mara del Bois this year!

Is that the Peckham strain?

 

[RubyToogood]

Nobody got my joke

 

[equationgirl]

How they arrived (squished in a jiffy bag envelope, too ):

How they're doing 4 days later (after some very emergency planting):

Any chance we'll get a crop this year?

I'm not hopeful, tbh.

Pretty containers mrs q, how's the crop coming along.

I for one await the post where you announce your first polytunnel in the back garden

 

[pseudonarcissus]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but is it my imagination, or are the green stalky bits increasingly difficult to remove?

I'm sure in the golden summers of my youth you just twisted the stalk and a cone of inedible neatly detached. Now I have to use a sharp knife.

I've not been to a pick your own for many decades (I remember when yorkshire's Lightwater Vally was just PYO farm) and child labour picking was routine (not outsourced to eastern Europeans like in the archers)

Anyway, tonight's were unnamed variety of morango from Minas Gerais, and not too bad

 

[Greebo]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but is it my imagination, or are the green stalky bits increasingly difficult to remove?

I'm sure in the golden summers of my youth you just twisted the stalk and a cone of inedible neatly detached. Now I have to use a sharp knife.<snip>

The easily detached cone is something you get with raspberries, blackberries, and loganberries. Strawberries don't really have an inedible core, just leafy hulls at the top which are difficult to remove without damaging properly ripe fruit.

 

[bi0boy]

British ones out now. Waitrose £4 a punnet, price-gouging cunts.

 

[Dillinger4]

those bastards