Supermarkets got no strawberries?

[alice9263]

My local supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, LIDL has got no strawberries for about 2-3 weeks now. M&S has got a small bit.!" Googled a bit and didn't see any news on shortage... asking cause I bake a lot using strawberries

Berries are flown in: bananas and avocados (and oranges) are shipped in at far far lower carbon footprint per calorie, as they always have been, and are a perfectly legitimate choice if you're not a fully fledged yoghurt knitter who only eats food from your own allotment. It's not as if there's an option for "seasonal" UK bananas.

Grapes might be flown in though which is iffy, and they come with a bunch of packaging.

There's no sunflowers about right now either. Gosh darn it!

Bananas grow year round. Avocados are imported anyway though I guess they may come from further at the wrong time of year, my last ones were from Israel. There are some things we have to import or we would never have them. Strawberries, I can just wait for summer.

It's November.
The frozen ones are nice for some recipes though.

They're like sad little red turnips at this time of year.

Importing by sea is very different carbon-wise from importing by air. Basically any imported berries will be air freighted and hence the work of the devil.

I can't understand why anyone would bake full stop to be honest, no matter what the time of year. It's such a wasteful use of energy and the planet's resources. My fams and I only eat raw food and we never cook anything.

I'm with your mum.
In general if it can be produced in the UK I want to support british farmers and I won't buy imported. That includes meat as well as veg.
Bananas and grapes don't grow in the UK so I don't mind buying them all year round. Strawberries do grow here so I only buy in season.

Has no one else bothered reading this, which gives the reason for the strawberry shortage?

Climate change innit.

IT'S NOVEMBER.

This was my thought too when there were no strawberries in Sainsbury’s. It was kind of nice to think more seasonally, even if they’re usually available year round now.

It's a bit of a bugger if you have your heart set on a particular recipe, but I think we need to wean ourselves off the idea everything being available year round

Exactly and are rock hard too, unlike our English or Scottish or Irish strawbs

If you go to your local greengrocers, they will be able to order stock from their wholesalers for you, but it will be expensive.

You could use Ferraro Rocher chocs instead? Stripped of foil wrapper first?

This!

I don't think op really cares...

It's just an attempt at a stealth boast post to show a few cakes!!

I’m glad someone has highlighted how wasteful cooking is, shocking how selfish some people are.

I grow my own strawberries and raspberries and most fruit that can be grown here 😅my kids lunch boxes look like a farmers market in summer.

Your cakes look amazing OP! Deffo going to steal this idea

LongTermLurker · Today 17:58

They're like sad little red turnips at this time of year.

Absolutely this

Exactly. Any strawberries would have to be flown in from the other side of the world. Carbon footprint?

I guess the kind of people who would eat a strawberry covered in luminous fondant icing aren’t fussed whether the strawberry tastes of raw potato.

They are really beautiful! I've had a lot of trouble finding strawberries for the last two or three weeks as well. They had a few in sainsburys yesterday but they weren't very nice.