Berry disappointing

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Posted at 12:22PM, 25 June 2010 by Stuart Walton - Food and wine writer

Of all the soft fruits of the British summer, which we live for and long for during the dreary rhubarb stretch from winter to spring, strawberries are the ones that underperform as consistently as the British summer itself. How the heart yearns for them to be good.

They have a tremendous weight of responsibility on their bright red shoulders, admittedly, being the first outriders of the balmy weather to come, but here's June and guess what? They're pants all over again.

The perfect strawberry should be a little heart-shaped cushion of scarlet loveliness, red as communism, softly yielding in texture, and bursting with sweet, ripe, aromatic, luscious flavour. What we actually get are anaemic monsters the size of Wales, with a white, unripened vegetal hard core, tasting a little like a parboiled turnip, selling for £4 a box on the high street.

Strawberries - like trains, planes, automobiles and running whelk stalls - are one of the things the British can't do anymore

Personally, I've always observed the June rule with strawberries. Buy them any earlier than that, and you're asking for trouble. Driving through the West Country in April, we saw farmers in vans selling their forced varieties by the roadside at 50p a punnet, and felt that the queues lining up for them were welcome to them. But then June arrives, and they're no better.

We tell ourselves it's been an on-off spring, that if you were a strawberry, you wouldn't feel like behaving when, despite a promising April, there were still overnight frosts in May. It doesn't console us, or excuse the fact that strawberries - like trains, planes, automobiles and running whelk stalls - are one of the things the British can't do any more.

The supermarkets see the domestic soft fruit season as the excuse for a prolonged exercise in customer-gouging, often charging more for them than they did for the imported ones they were flogging at Christmas. All strawberry varieties have apparently resolved into the one monotonous offering of Elsanta, a Michael Bublé of a variety, bland, uniform, sweet but flat in taste, largely because it's been over-watered to increase the yield. There is some chance of finding better varieties at pick-your-own farms. Look for Mara des Bois, Honeoye, Symphony or Florence.

As with other fruits, we have been trained by the exigencies of big retail turnover and shelf-life into eating strawberries underripe, so that we have forgotten what they ought to taste like. When the berry is ripe, the stalk should come away easily in one piece, not have to be dug out with your fingernails. It should be just at the point of squishiness, requiring careful handling not to smoosh it, or perhaps smooshing it quite happily when adding it to lightly whipped cream or thick yogurt.

If you haven't the energy to pick your own, try the farmers' markets. You may still get charged the precious earth for them, but at least they might be the real thing. Taste before you buy. And no matter what you end up paying, you can at least be sure it will be less than the poor suckers at Wimbledon are.

Comments

Sue

25 June 2010, 3:04PM
Sue

Totally agree, Elsanta is a poor excuse for a strawberry. I've got a variety called Fragaria Darseleo growing on strawberry frame which honestly tastes like strawberries and cream, luscious juicy fruits which I pick as I need. Far more flavour than anything I've found in the shops. There is a local PYO which I'm going to try soon once my strawbs are done. I'll definately be propagating more plants of my own though - too delicious to lose!

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Girl Flower

25 June 2010, 4:02PM
Girl Flower

I have just started ordering my meat and veg and many other things beside from Farm-Direct.com. The last order I had was beautiful, fresh meat and eggs and I have never seen vergetables look so tempting before! This weekend is going to be my first batch of strawberries from them, on the basis of all the other items I am now hoping for greatness! There is nothing sweeter than a perfect strawberry. I am completely boycotting the supermarket variety this year!

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StormyRaincloud

25 June 2010, 4:19PM
StormyRaincloud

Totally agree. I look back with fondness on my childhood where we used to spend an hour or more in the pyo fields, eating a delicious morsel now and again when mum wasn't looking. We don't live near any pyo anymore and I don't drive, so have to settle for the awful supermarket rip offs. I would love my kids to taste what strawberries should taste like.

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Cassandra Amy Rose

26 June 2010, 8:05PM
Cassandra Amy Rose

Maybe i've never tasted a 'proper' strawberry, because i've only ever tried the supermarket ones that always seem to taste of the product sold next to them. I've always wondered why people go on about strawberries, maybe its because they can taste better than that!

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lalybaba

27 June 2010, 2:31PM
lalybaba

I too wondered for years why strawberries where thought so wonderful...then on a small local market in France I discovered what strawberries were all about. Heaven. I now grow my own in pots on my balcony and though they don't quite beat the memory of that strawberry revelation they are SO much better than anything you can buy in a supermarket!

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Nicola

29 June 2010, 8:13AM
Nicola

Ech, I hate Elsanta berries and it's unbelievable that they account for 80% of the strawberries sold in the UK! I recently organised a trip to a local PYO farm (I run a local Slow Food group) and after a tour of the farm we had a blind strawberry taste test! Local Symphony came out on top, then Local Eros, then supermarket Elsanta, and in last place the somewhat revolting tasting Spanish berries from the supermarket. Everyone was very surprised at the large differences in taste! I will never again buy supermarket strawberries - they breed them for long shelf life, but good looks...not for taste.

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karen

8 July 2010, 11:04AM
karen

i think this years supermarket strawberries are awful, no taste, go rotten in less than a day, and so expensive.. will be growing my own next year.. looking forward to my childhood memories of what strawberries should taste like, sweet, and juicy ..

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halle butt

14 July 2010, 8:05AM
halle butt

We live near Holt there is a fruit farm that has been doing pick your own for over 50 yrs. They use the variety Pegasus a fantastic fruit, Â£2.99 a kilo!

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Jules

15 July 2010, 5:19PM
Jules

Like many others, I am bitterly disappointed with the strawberries available in supermarkets. Where have the sweet and flavoursome fruits of my childhood gone? In addition to poor taste and quality, I find it hard to believe that some supermarkets, namely Tesco and Sainsbury, are happy to sell sub-standard goods to customers at the cost they do. Ultimately, the blame is with us for continuing to buy the fruit. I, like Girl Flower, will be boycotting the supermarket strawberry, and hope that many others do the same. Hopefully, supermarkets will get the message...eventually.

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halle butt

16 July 2010, 8:30AM
halle butt

We very rarely buy anything to eat from Supermarkets, they need to sell products that look good but have mediocre flavour. We have a large garden and grow our own, the exceptions are peas and baby broad beans. I travel once a month to the Manchester Wholesale Fish Market then vacuum seal and freeze, 2 John Dory on the grill tonight with a sorrel sauce, charlotte pots, marmande toms and greek basil salad, cucumbers and onion salad (all veg from garden) home made sourdough bread, a posy of sweet peas and phlox to sent the dining room, pud home made scones warm from oven with home made strawberry jam and clotted cream, I will work all of this off tommorow as I need to prepare a new area for my late crop and christmas new pots.

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