I hope we pick some organic blueberries again next month: http://www.pickyourown.org/facebook.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com/Blueberry%20Pickin'
interesting piece from NPR yesterday: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/17/152522900/the-secret-life-of-californias-world-class-strawberries
Why Are Strawberries Getting Bigger And Blander? All Things Considered host Melissa Block asked Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor at Cornell University, about why it's happening.
Why the diminishing flavor? "Over the last 100 or so years, people have been breeding strawberries for various important traits — size and yield ... maybe color, disease and insect resistance, flavor. And as you select and try to improve one, oftentimes one of the others has to be sacrificed slightly to make progress."
Is the bright red color natural? "There's nothing chemically-induced, but a strawberry that's not quite fully red will turn red, even after sitting on the shelf. And that's why the color is sometimes deceiving; it doesn't necessarily mean it's fully ripe and fully flavorful."
Why are they so big? "Americans just naturally think bigger is better. And the other factor, particularly with smaller-sized fruit like strawberries, is because of the labor situation being so expensive and difficult to obtain, it's a lot faster to pick a flat of strawberries when the strawberries are large, than it is when the strawberries are small."
amazing that you get local stawberries! yum!
ReplyDeleteI hope we pick some organic blueberries again next month: http://www.pickyourown.org/facebook.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com/Blueberry%20Pickin'
interesting piece from NPR yesterday:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/17/152522900/the-secret-life-of-californias-world-class-strawberries
Why Are Strawberries Getting Bigger And Blander?
All Things Considered host Melissa Block asked Marvin Pritts, a horticulture professor at Cornell University, about why it's happening.
Why the diminishing flavor?
"Over the last 100 or so years, people have been breeding strawberries for various important traits — size and yield ... maybe color, disease and insect resistance, flavor. And as you select and try to improve one, oftentimes one of the others has to be sacrificed slightly to make progress."
Is the bright red color natural?
"There's nothing chemically-induced, but a strawberry that's not quite fully red will turn red, even after sitting on the shelf. And that's why the color is sometimes deceiving; it doesn't necessarily mean it's fully ripe and fully flavorful."
Why are they so big?
"Americans just naturally think bigger is better. And the other factor, particularly with smaller-sized fruit like strawberries, is because of the labor situation being so expensive and difficult to obtain, it's a lot faster to pick a flat of strawberries when the strawberries are large, than it is when the strawberries are small."
Thanks Jenn for the excellent comment!
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