We’ve been growing pots of strawberries for about five years now, and while they are always smaller than their commercial cousins, the flavour has more than made up for their size. Now, there is actual, real research that explains why home grown tastes better:
https://newatlas.com/science/strawberries-fungicides-sweetness/
The culprit? Fungicide. Apparently fungicides not only kill fungus, they can also have a detrimental effect on the strawberry’s ability to produce sugars and other nutrients. Ergo, the commercial products don’t taste as sweet as home grown. 😀
As home gardeners, we’ve also noticed that our tomatoes are incredibly sweet. Much sweeter than the ones I used to buy from the supermarket. If anyone knows why, I’d love to know.
Oh, and it goes without saying that NOTHING in our garden is sprayed with herbicides, pesticides or fungicides. We are as organic as a home garden can be without being officially certified. I’m proud of that. 🙂
Here are some pics of our bounty:
Strawberries
Peaches and tomatoes
More tomatoes
And more tomatoes coming!
Cheers,
Meeks
Meeka's Mind 
March 12th, 2023 at 7:56 am
[…] Proof! Home grown strawberries do taste better. […]
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March 9th, 2023 at 12:47 pm
Yumm
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March 9th, 2023 at 2:05 pm
😀
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March 7th, 2023 at 7:37 pm
[…] Proof! Home grown strawberries do taste better.Advertisement […]
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March 7th, 2023 at 7:23 am
Not only does the food taste better, but who really wants to dine on fungicide??!! I keep forgetting that it’s harvest season for you. How wonderful to have strawberries and tomatoes at your fingertips. I can’t grow either here – too cold for tomatoes, and too many sneaky deer for strawberries. I’ll have to hit the organic farm stands this summer. Can’t wait!
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March 7th, 2023 at 7:39 am
Yes, the reverse seasons trips me up too. But you /can/ grow strawberries in pots! Maybe on a sunny verandah? Or would the deer still come get them?
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March 7th, 2023 at 8:56 am
Thats not a bad idea! I could at least give it a try. Maybe window boxes. Hmmm. Now you have me thinking. 🙂
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March 7th, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Yes! Just think of all those luscious strawberries cascading from the window boxes! And the window boxes would be fairly easy to protect from marauders too!
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March 8th, 2023 at 4:19 am
Sounds like a plan. The deer rarely come up on the deck!
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March 8th, 2023 at 8:22 am
:D:D
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March 7th, 2023 at 2:31 am
I have noticed a lot of store-bought strawberries aren’t as sweet as I remember. I really want to stop by and try yours!
On a different topic, have you read William Gibson’s Neuromancer? It’s from the 1980’s but came highly recommended by my daughter. It reminded me in ways of your series.
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March 7th, 2023 at 7:42 am
We seem to be having a second fruiting so I wish I could send you some! And yes, yes, yes!!!! I love Neuromancer. William Gibson and China Mieville both achieve a kind of scifi-fantasy fusion that feels real. If I come close to that I’m tickled pink. 😀
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March 7th, 2023 at 8:47 am
Good to know. I can order it from my library so I think I will.
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March 7th, 2023 at 4:36 pm
I think you’ll like it. 🙂
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March 6th, 2023 at 1:38 am
We’re currently up to our butts in snow here, and this is making long for spring so I can get to planting our vegetable garden. I’d love to do strawberries–do they take up much room?
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March 6th, 2023 at 6:57 am
No! Not much room at all. We had basically 2 pots fruiting, and we’d get a nice handful a day. Two pots will provide a small ‘treat’ per day or if you save them up, a couple of decent serves every couple of days.
Next year we’re going to double that because we want to make Strawberries Romanov. 😀
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March 6th, 2023 at 7:02 am
That’s great to know, thanks!
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March 6th, 2023 at 7:21 am
Welcome. 😀
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March 5th, 2023 at 10:38 am
May we all have gardens to tend, produce to squeeze and sweet berries to eat, their juice dripping from our lips.
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March 6th, 2023 at 6:58 am
-grin- you poet you! In truth, we /could/ all have a [small] sweet treat per day from just one or two pots of strawberries. Do it! You’re welcome. 😀
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March 6th, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Indeed strawberries are really easy to grow in a pot. Use a long one and they’ll multiply on their own quite easily, too. That being said, I’ve never tasted them – or anything I’ve planted. It’s fun to plant them and watch them grow and bear fruit, but having witnessed all those insects and the like having their rave parties on them turned them to uneatable. I choose to *imagine* the ones I buy have grown in a sterilised environment. 🤣
Actually, from what I know this is impossible. I’ve made a research and asked two agronomist students whether it would be possible to create such a sterilised greenhouse (without taking into account money, but given current technology) to “build” it in a story, but they couldn’t find a plausible solution to many issues. 🤷♂️
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March 6th, 2023 at 8:13 pm
Oh no!!!! You can wash all fruit in a little bit of dishwashing detergent. Any nasties are washed away when you rinse. Just make sure you eat fairly quickly after washing as the fruit doesn’t last as long.
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March 5th, 2023 at 8:31 am
I never was a person who bought quality meat or produce until I tried it. The difference in taste is night and day! It is truly a must that you can buy food that has grown as naturally as possible you can. Not to mention avoiding illnesses from eating food treated with pesticides and poisons. The cost can be prohibitive to most people though. Great post!1
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March 5th, 2023 at 8:41 am
Thank you! My Dad grew fruit trees on a standard suburban block when I was a kid so I grew up knowing how amazing tree ripened fruit really is. I brought the Offspring up the same way. I’m on a pension now so money is tight but I pick my ‘fights’. I buy real free range eggs and a bit of frozen salmon, but I’ve stopped buying most meats because they’re too expensive. Growing things we eat a lot allows us to eat well on a tight budget. It can be done, and the rewards are in health and flavour. 🙂
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March 5th, 2023 at 12:45 am
Your proof looks delicious! I’ve always preferred wild berries or the berries sold directly by farmers (Yes, NYC has excellent farmer’s markets with growers in the areas outside the city) because they are BETTER, sweeter, fresher, and yes.. not weighed down with chemicals and techniques to increase size and durability in transport.
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March 5th, 2023 at 8:44 am
That’s amazing! It never occurred to me that New York City would have farmer’s markets. Then again, NYC is incredibly cosmopolitan so it makes sense that New Yorkers would value good food. High Five!
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March 3rd, 2023 at 8:40 am
Well done you, that all looks fantastic! I would only add that if you want even better flavour, get some hens: not only do they lay fabulous eggs, their poop (used as fertiliser, obvs.) is AMAZING at increasing the taste of your homegrown fruit and veg 😉
I’ve got a few spare hens in my garden. Let me know if you’d like me to stick a couple in a Fed-ex pouch and send them over 😉
*Hugs*
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March 3rd, 2023 at 11:48 am
LMAO! -cough- Thanks for the offer, Chris but I’ll make do with alpaca poop. :p
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March 3rd, 2023 at 5:15 pm
That’s probably even better 😉
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March 4th, 2023 at 9:25 am
Definitely saves on stamps!
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March 4th, 2023 at 9:28 am
🙂
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:19 pm
I spent an autumn apple picking about thirty years ago. In conversation, the farm manager told me that during the year each tree had about twenty five different sprayings of fungicide, pesticide, herbicide…you-name-it-icide.
I wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly and eat organic as often as possible.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:24 pm
Twenty-five? Dear god…that’s horrible. I’m sure it’s the same here. I always wash shop bought stuff as a matter of course but now I’m going to be even more diligent. Yuck!
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:25 pm
It certainly opened my eyes a bit!
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:27 pm
lol – it’s funny how those early experiences influence your life. My first paying job was in the kitchen of a large restaurant. Put me off eating out for a very long time.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 10:58 pm
I can understand that.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:13 pm
I love the tiny strawberries and the taste is wonderful often the mass-produced ones are picked before they are fully ripe and kept refrigerated which ruins the taste I think…Both your tomatoes and peaches look delicious and as you say the taste is far better…
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:26 pm
Me too! The little ones just pop with flavour. Refuse to buy those whopping big, tasteless strawberries from the supermarket any more. Ditto apricots and peaches. Once you taste tree ripened fruit you just can’t go back to the other stuff.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Me too they aren’t even sweet nothing they are just tasteless-sigh-
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March 3rd, 2023 at 11:52 am
Yup. Unless you add a ton of sugar to them, they’re just…wet.:/ Makes you wonder how on earth consumers were manipulated into accepting such awful produce. Methinks we’ve been like frogs in that proverbial pot of water.
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March 3rd, 2023 at 12:39 pm
I suppose if that’s all you have ever known you know no different and that is such a shame when someone grows up without tasting fruit and veg that is homegrown and in season 🙂
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March 3rd, 2023 at 2:40 pm
Yes! It’s scary to think that most people don’t know what real food actually tastes like. No wonder life-style related diseases are so rampant. 😦
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March 2nd, 2023 at 5:20 pm
Wow–homegrown peaches! And all those tomatoes; your garden is in the stage mine hits in late August and September. I really ought to try strawberries in pots!
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:10 pm
I think late August/September is the equivalent of our Feb/March. And yes! Try the strawberries because they really do fruit well in pots. I think they like hanging down over the side. Less bugs?
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March 2nd, 2023 at 4:37 pm
I’m so impressed. I assume the taste difference is to do with commercial production methods. But another interesting thing I’ve noticed is detectable difference in taste between the leafy greens, veggies, herbs etc I grow in my garden and others grown locally and sometimes organically. Small scale wins!
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:11 pm
Totally agree, Dale. All of our greens have a much stronger flavour, including the lettuce. Shop bought lettuce just seems to be a bland sponge for the salad dressing. Small scale definitely wins. 😀
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March 2nd, 2023 at 3:55 pm
Hats off to you, Meeks. Commercial products are also often hybrids that are ‘bred’ to be bigger and that forced growth also effects taste as the product has a more watery taste and texture.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:16 pm
Oh god yes! Shelf life seems to be the prime concern of commercial growers. I can understand that in a way as the supermarkets can make or break a producer, but it seems so unfair that flavour, and probably nutrition, are the casualties.
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March 3rd, 2023 at 2:16 am
That is modern life 💔
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March 3rd, 2023 at 11:49 am
Yeah. 😦
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March 2nd, 2023 at 2:50 pm
There was once a Japanese strawberry (in my gardens when I lived in Melbourne and Canberra) that was the best, best, best strawberry ever. Can’t take fruit or cuttings into South Australia, and now I can’t get them, but I dream of them, oh, I do, I do.
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:18 pm
Some years back I bought some Japanese varieties from a heritage seed saver place and was told they were no good for commercial because you couldn’t transport them or keep them on the shelves for days and days. I didn’t care, obviously, and I too remember how delicious they were. Can’t remember the names now though. 😦
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March 2nd, 2023 at 11:19 am
I miss gardening – enjoy the fruits of yours!
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March 2nd, 2023 at 7:20 pm
I have! The Offspring and I made passata this afternoon and it went straight into the freezer for when the tomatoes finally curl up their toes. 🙂
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