Confession - we have been eating strawberries for a few days. But today we picked enough to have a few pints to bring to market on Wednesday. Come early if you want some! We are unfortunately never able to supply the organic strawberry demand. So many factors affect strawberry production: too rainy, too hot and dry, too cool. The patch looks promising right now, but I never count my berries until they are picked!

I had occasion to eat some non-organic strawberries today. At least I tried to eat them. They were big, dark red, and so tough I needed a knife to cut them! The taste was faintly reminiscent of strawberries with a bitter aftertaste. I really couldn't eat them, but I guess I'm spoiled.

Strawberries, with their watery composition, absorb more herbicides and pesticides than almost any other fruit. Add the chemical mix to commercial harvesting practices, where berries are picked at 3/4 ripeness in order to withstand shipping, and you get the big tough poor-tasting berry staring me down this afternoon.

So folks are correct to clamor for organic berries. We'll do the best to grow as much as we can. And what we do produce will be conditioned only by the sun, the rain, and our own bare hands.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My road to Frog Holler, by Paul Burger

May 7, 2012