Monday, February 21, 2011

Do our Farmers care about Quality or Quantity?

One of my favorite desserts is to eat fresh strawberries drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. Delicious!!!!!!!!!!! However, there was nothing that the sweetened condensed milk could do to make those juicy red strawberries taste any better and in an instant my dessert went from hero to zero and it just simply sucked.
What are our farmers selling to stores these days? I see a lot of fruit that looks great but taste like cardboard. Apples, Grapes, strawberries you name it. Grant it for many of these fruits they are not in season, but that leaves me to think if they are not in season and we have them available, how are they made available. Farmers, Gardeners should produce vegetables and fruits like a well seasoned Chef prepares a meal. A seasoned Chef constantly tastes his food. Unlike some who just throw whatever is ordered on the table without tasting only to realize they suck from reading bad reviews. Sadly enough I want to say that the over whelming majority of veggies and fruits that I have purchased from the super market really suck. Ok I know I am ruined because I grow alot of my own produce;  But that's my point because I know what a vegetable or fruit should taste like.
I guess as consumers we do have a choice, some of us have more choices than others. in many parts of the states people have the opportunity to purchase locally grown food. I have used a great website Local Harvest.org to find local farms in my area. That strawberry must have really been bad for me to rant this long. But I hate being tricked by good looks and bad taste. Disappointing...... Big Sigh!!

3 comments:

Morghan said...

I have a good local co-op that sells delicious produce. There's also a farmer's market here.

Whenever I go to the supermarket everything always looks so much better, but tastes horrible.

I've been considering a container garden as the ground here is contaminated and I wouldn't eat anything grown in it unless I was starving.

Sue said...

I grew up on grocery store produce. I loved my out-of-season produce. Imagine, strawberries and cherries in the dead of winter.
But then, one day, I started a garden. And from that moment on, no more grocery-garbage. Growers grow what is DEMANDED of them-food that LOOKS great and ships well. Taste is irrelevent. Sad but true. So now, I only eat strawberries in June (my own) and I haven't had a nibble of greens in months. But soon, very very soon, I'll be planting up a cold frame and that will be the best tasting spinach on the planet! Eating in season has given me a new appreciation of just how great any vegetable tastes, when you've waited ELEVEN LONG months to get it.
You're very fortunate to live down south. Imagine a 90 day growing season........(me)

ATW said...

morghan- Container gardening is the way to go if you have soil issues. In fact many people around the world especially in japan don't even bother buying a container. They just use the soil bag and plant directly in it. It doesn't look as sexy but you get amazing results.


Sue- I am right there with you; I am tethering with the idea of going full fledge self-sufficient with vegetables. It sickens me to eat something so good and have that stuck in my brain and then try the same thing in it's raw form at another time and realize something is missing. My brain is telling me what it should taste like, but it doesn't come close. And ohhhhh boy 90 days is insane. I adit im spoiled I have it good, but there are some things that come with my extended season, like bugs and plenty of them. It's almost like a pick your poison moment.