The ultimate Strawberry - what’s your thoughts?

Strawberries have always been a favorite of ours, in fact any berry really, and we often get asked if we still enjoy strawberries as much as we did prior to becoming growers. The answer is yes, we do still enjoy strawberries just as much but over the season we do find at some points we like strawberries more than at other times.

Over the past three years I think Fraser and myself would have consumed more strawberries than we have in all our years previously combined. In the beginning we probably ate so many just because they were a bit of a novelty to us and temptation got the better of us when we were picking but as we have progressed the reason why we eat so many is really to understand the product itself and the changes it goes through across the season. Over time I guess, there has been a natural progression where we now look at the strawberry in very different way than we did before beginning Dairy’s Berries. What we have come to understand quite well is that the strawberries taste, texture and appearance can change quite quickly and is mainly influenced by the climate at any given time. We have also found that everyone has a different opinion on what the perfect strawberry is like. Some people ask us for soft strawberries that are sweet and some ask for firm strawberries with a more even balance between sweet and tart in taste.

I enjoy the strawberries the most when they have that ‘crunch’ when you bite into them and they are sweet but also have just a slight bit of tart. These berries are often produced at the start of the season and without alluding to the fact I am a strawberry connoisseur or general expert grower I would believe this is highly attributed to the fact that the temperatures are still rising, the strawberries are growing and ripening slowly and the plants themselves are at the start of their producing season so they have lots of energy and little stress factors. These berries, in this state, we have found also have great storability. I have left berries in the fridge for 5 days in our open topped punnets and then have still happily eaten them.  

As we hit November the berries start to get bigger and juicier, and are very sweet (loosing that slight hit of tart) but they still have that ‘crunch’ factor that we both enjoy. From here, as the weather starts to heat up and we start getting the intense sunshine coming into December and the berries do begin to change. They start to ripen very quickly and they can become softer in texture, they become very sweet and sometimes it can be hard to determine exactly when the best point to pick them is. A little early and they will not be completely ripened to the right point but slightly too late they can taste a little over done and the timeframe for this can be only a matter of half a day.

It is often during this time in early December, when the berries are ripening very quickly, we also seem to get rain on and off which again changes the berry itself. The rain brings on berries even more so but it can mean that they become even more delicate and it is these strawberries, produced over this time, that do need to be used up quickly because with 5 days in the fridge I’m not entirely sure we could call them strawberries anymore. These are the berries were we always advise people to remove from the punnet and place in an airtight container to keep them fresh.

So, with this quick piece the take home messages are to be aware that often across the strawberry season the characteristics of the berries themselves do change and this will affect not only our personal taste buds but also the storability of our strawberries. You have now heard what we believe to be the perfect strawberry but what do you think? Are you lover of the soft, sweet strawberry or a firm, slightly tartier strawberry?