Post #3 & #5 have it right. I might be a bit overly picky about strawbs but I look at them and if I see ANY white or green around what I call the “shoulder” and the overall color isn’t fairly deep red, and they don’t smell sweet and fragrant, they’re no good. Find another market or grower. Or just wait for them to come into season. Okui, one of our local stands, opens in a few days. Can hardly wait.
If you have any pick-your-own farms nearby, they’re a good bet. Anything shipped in from Egypt or Spain or wherever won’t taste of anything (quite apart from the ecological madness of burning jet fuel to bring strawberries halfway round the world).
Back in the 60’s (MO) when I was a kid, we grew 300-400 quarts of strawberries out of our garden that we mostly sold to friends and neighbors. The highly sweet and flavorful varieties were Stern Plumside and Roberson. Over the years while I was away in graduate school etc., those varieties died out. Perhaps by a virus or wilt that invaded the garden, or something else. They were replaced with numerous other varieties, but none ever tasted as good as the originals. We currently grow earliglows and honeyoes. Earliglows (not a commercial variety) are perhaps the current best, but are just not as good. The problem is that new varieties are designed as commercial varieties, which prioritize size, shape, and color over taste. So unless you can grow a flavorful variety yourself, or find someone local that grows them, really good strawberries just won’t be found in the commercial market.
You know, I don’t understand this. I know I value taste WAY over how strawberries look. I am sure I am not alone in that. Am I (and others like me) not a good market for worse-looking better-tasting strawberries?
I shan’t gloat (yes I will) but I live in deepest Kent and pretty much home of the English strawberry. I can walk down to my local pick-your-own and sort out the most intensely red, sweet and pungent strawberries imaginable that are warm from the sun and at their peak for about 6 hours. Utter heaven.
But, as has been said, season is everything and I can only do that from late May to late September weather permitting. Outside of those times don’t even bother.
Apparently not. Have you seen tomatoes at the market? Same problem. I do not buy supermarket strawberries or tomatoes. They invariably suck. I grow tomatoes and just enjoy the two months or so that I can have fresh tomatoes. I’ve tried with strawberries, but the critters keep eating 'em. Assholes.
The problem is, you don’t generally taste them until you’ve already bought them, and though almost everyone would say they’d prefer a slightly wonky shaped strawberry that tasted amazing to one that looked perfect but tasted of cardboard, most people will still pick the best looking ones when buying them.
That’s just a matter of advertising/marketing. You know, like “with a name like Smuckers…”. “Our strawberries are fugly, but they taste like heaven.”