Who buys winter strawberries?

[ChickensMightFly]

I love strawberries, as soon as the UK ones are in the shops, somewhere around wimbledon time, I indulge as often as I can until around late September when they go tasteless... I pull down the shutters, sweep up and declare the strawberry party over until next year.

On the odd occasion in between I have been tempted by some beautiful red examples and have cursed my gullible self for spending hard earned cash on hard tasteless strawbs.

Bu they are always on the shelf so someone must be buying them, but who!? and why!?

Weirdly, this is not true of raspberries which stay tasty all year round - I would like a berry farmer to explain how this can be.

I bought some yesterday from Sainsbugs. they were reduced and we were picnicking so I bought for that. Won't bother again, though red they were hard and tasteless, yuck!

Perhaps all the winter strawberries are bought by innocent shoppers who, like you, vow never to repeat that mistake again... in which case there are a lot of them because they are for sale year round.

The worst ones are the Fortuna variety
Horrible hard things

I’m mildly obsessed with seasonality and only eat strawberries from the UK in June/July.

But I know lots of people who a) don’t know when is strawberry season and b) don’t look at where the food came from. They buy whatever they fancy.

As a nation, we’ve lost our understanding of seasonal food and have forgotten it tastes much better. Choice is king now. Sad.

I do because my Autistic son is obsessed with strawberries. He likes to put them in patterns and then eat them.

I buy them for my kids, who devour even hard tasteless strawberries with great delight. Toddlers/preschoolers are not very discerning 🤷‍♀️

I'm the same, only ever buy British ones in the summer. My favourites are from M&S or when we pick our own.
They ones in the shops the rest of the year don't even taste like strawberries.

Nope, hard tasteless little bastards.

I been buying some recently as trying to get something resembling fruit into my DC. Cut up with half a bag of sugar and a tub of double cream they're quite palatable.

I can understand buying them as a way to get kids to eat fruit, otherwise they are up there with buying asparagus in winter.

My mum is the person who buys them.

She doesn't eat fruit herself, but she knows my DF likes strawberries, so if they are on the shelf she buys them. He then eats them, comments that they are like turnips at this time of year, and she says "yes, they came from Israel. You can't get good strawberries in winter, can you?".

Then the next day she buys some more.

Ds will need to move to satsumas again!
We've done ok up till now as Elsanta ones were still about and they still taste like strawberries

DS is 1 and he'll eat them but I don't like buying them because they are awful. DH bought some, says he won't do that again. They just don't travel well. Scottish strawberries in the summer were amazing.

No, they’re revolting and quite often expensive as well. They look nice though, lovely shade of red and a good size so I think there appearance convinces people they’ll taste good!

Their!

You were right the first time!

Didn't Queen Victoria insist they were grown in her glasshouses, so she could have them all year round, and especially at Christmas?

Buying winter strawberries is like buying asparagus that has flown half way around the world. Wait until delicious UK asparagus is in season , buy it, enjoy it. Same as with cherries and apples.

I just wish every seasonal food that I love could be grown in the UK, but there are limitations unfortunately. Blood orange season coming soon! Followed by jersey royals.

I'm not buying it, but my strawberry plant is still producing so eat them occasionally. It's alpine kind, so it doesn't taste as nice as normal variety, but still happy to eat them.

Or maybe not. Just saw the 'there'

My kids always ask for them every time they see them and they seem to enjoy them even if they're hard and sour.

Me.

They’re a sad imitation of in season strawberries, but they’re still better than no strawberries... so...

Dd insisted we buy some at the weekend, I gave the spiel about seasonality, air miles etc but caved in as she is not well ATM. She admitted they were not good strawberries, so she will just have to wait until May and I will bring them home from the allotment. So Dd is the person you are looking for.

Me though probably coming close to the end now. Got some pretty good ones in Waitrose this week but Morrison's looked crap.

they are berries of red disappointment. time to move on to strawberry jam