Supermarkets supersize our strawberries but shrink their taste

Strawberries have supersized. The big retailers are selling huge great boxes of them, big enough to bathe a newborn in once you’ve gorged yourself on the contents, as much as 1kg of juicy, scarlet fruitiness.

On the one hand, this is good news. When over 2lb of the most luxurious of fruits can be had for three quid, the five-a-dayers can rejoice. Healthy food, and cracking value, it’ll surely encourage us to eat more, especially when it is traditionally the stuff of Wimbledon finals, birthday teas and royal garden parties. Luxury for the many, not the few.

So what’s changed? For those of us who grew up before the 1990s, when strawberries were still grown outside, bowls of strawberries and cream were strictly a June and July treat. And if summer turned out to be yet another washout, you could forget about strawberries till next year.

We have the muchdespised polytunnel to thank for the new bounty. Remember those heavy rains we had at the start of last week? According to Herefordshire strawberry grower Jeremy Price, pre-polytunnels “it would have put paid to five days’ worth of fruit that was just ripening, and probably scarred some of the green fruit and even the flowers”.

That damage would make them more prone to botrytis, the damp-loving fungus that’s the scourge of outdoor strawberries.

So next time you gaze despondently at a field that appears to have been wrapped up in clingfilm like a chicken in the chiller cabinet, bear in mind that since polytunnels appeared in the early 1990s, they’ve given us more or less guaranteed strawberry harvests from April to the autumn.

But what about the taste? Those huge boxes of strawbs may not be all that much of a bargain after all. Supermarkets encourage their growers to pick berries slightly underripe, as they’ll be firmer and last longer, as well as surviving being rattled about on the back of the lorry as they thunder from farm to distribution hub to superstore. Never mind the flavour, check out the shelf life.

Elsanta, a variety that has the potential to be delicious if picked at its prime, has been popular with the multiples for years because it colours up to a nice bright red early – yes, that’s right, it looks lovely and ripe when it’s still dull, sour and underripe.

Strong and stable, they are perfect if you are a supermarket manager. Less so if you are actually going to eat the fruit.

I’m not knocking all the supermarket strawberries. Driscoll’s, an American trade name for a number of varieties grown under licence over here, make some full flavoured, often flower water-scented varieties, but you’re unlikely to see them in the bumper bargain boxes. You may have better luck with the reliable Kentish Malling Centenary or Sweet Eve.

But ripeness is still king, as is minimal time in the fridge which kills the strawberry’s finer qualities. Cornish producer Phil Boddington, who grows strawberries outdoors near Mevagissey, points out: “We can pick up to two days riper for independents than others do for supermarkets – we aren’t looking for a huge shelf life.” The best will be picked the day they are eaten – or failing that, in the afternoon ready to be in your bowl by the next lunchtime. But you will have to head to greengrocers and markets to get that sort of luxury.