english strawberries

[alypaly]

have tried the strawberries from tesco and sainsburys and they are disgusting. they are tasteless and mushy in the midddle and barely last one day despite their sell by.
No wonder they are BOGOF
anyone found any nice ones?

pick your own if you can then they are fresh and taste so much better they have been cold stored and that sort of fruit needs to be eaten the same day really, there are usually pick your own places all over the place, if you have a bit of garden they are really easy to grow even in a pot. I love strawberries but most supermarket ones are just awful and the ones from spain out of season are hard and tasteless too.

the only ones i have found that are nice are costco's but it means a 6 mile drive there for them. they last a week when i get them. they are huge, full of flavour and last well. just wish costco was nearer

The ones out at the moment have either been badly affected by all the wet weather or they are grown indoors. Berries need proper sunshine in order to be firm and sweet and any hint of moisture makes them go to mush. Try them again next week when a few days of warm weather will have made a massive difference.

thanks

I agress, sadly the season has been absolutely rubbish so far. I'm hoping a month of decent sun will mean we'll get some good British stock by the end of June, but tbh I'm not hopeful this year. That said I've had some really quite palatable Chilean strawberries earlier in the year, but not much good stuff lately.

One thing you can do to improve them is, assuming it's sunny, leave them out in the sun all day.

I never pay attention to the supermarket sell by for UK strawberries. If you can eat them the same date, please do. Bought a few punnets yesterday and had to eat them as the bottom fruit was already going.

That said, it is the start of the season and they will only get better. The Sainsbo ones we get here are still very much on the watery side but they are developing flavour and damn side better than the ones you get year round, which crunch like bloody apples and taste of nothing.

The value sainsbury's UK ones have been fine here, reasonable flavour - still the normal supermarket strawberry taste but now towards the good end rather than bad, but it is pretty early still so they would've been forced a bit to get them out. So they should improve.

The garden ones are beginning to get close, plump and green at the minute.

Mara Des Bois are the best variety. By a country mile.

Grow them.

Try thinly slicing your crappy supermarket ones and cooking them in a single layer at 85 degrees C, if you can, for a couple of hours. I guarantee it'll wake them up. It dehydrates them, concentrating the flavour, and just melts the pectin making them super juicy without cooking them

Try to avoid Elsanta variety as they are known for good travelling & shelf life but no taste. I always see if I can smell them in the punnet if they seem scentless they're going to be tasteless too.

I bought some beautiful organic British strawberries in Asda yesterday.
Delicious!