Finding a More Flavorful Fruit
The American way tends to lean toward bigger being better. But when it comes to strawberries, bigger is, most often, watery and tasteless. NPR speaks with a berry crop specialist to find out why: “Over the last hundred or so years, people have been breeding strawberries for various important traits; size and yield - those are obvious ones...And as you select and try to improve one, oftentimes one of the others has to be sacrificed slightly to make progress.”The article also covers why our parents, and their parents before them, probably had better fruit. Researchers have replanted the strawberries of yesteryear (one from each decade for the past hundred years, to be exact) to track their evolution. The conclusion? On the whole, strawberry plants have gotten larger, more productive, and less tasty. Since we can’t often try before we buy, NPR gives us a few hints to find a more flavorful fruit. That is, if you can’t make it to your local greenmarket. Bigger, Blander, Blegh: Why Are Strawberries Worse? from NPR
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The American way tends to lean toward bigger being better. But when it comes to strawberries, bigger is, most often, watery and tasteless. NPR speaks with a berry crop specialist to find out why:
“Over the last hundred or so years, people have been breeding strawberries for various important traits; size and yield - those are obvious ones...And as you select and try to improve one, oftentimes one of the others has to be sacrificed slightly to make progress.”
The article also covers why our parents, and their parents before them, probably had better fruit. Researchers have replanted the strawberries of yesteryear (one from each decade for the past hundred years, to be exact) to track their evolution. The conclusion? On the whole, strawberry plants have gotten larger, more productive, and less tasty. Since we can’t often try before we buy, NPR gives us a few hints to find a more flavorful fruit. That is, if you can’t make it to your local greenmarket.