Which strawberries would you buy?

None since all strawberries require chemicals and waste a lot of plastic to produce? lol

Tough question and good food for thought. I guess it would depend on how much fuel is being used to transport them, the emissions output of that transportation, whether or not both producers used plasticulture and potassium sulfide or Bordeaux mixture to ward off fungi and other "diseases" or pests, and where the plants wwere purchased before being placed into the ground.

 

I'd pick the ones without the pesticides.

 

None. Strawberries are one of the most heavily pesticided crops. I grow my own or eat wild strawberries. California growers continue to use Methyl Bromide (an ozone-depleting gas) to fumigate the soil before planting. This is in spite of International treaties. There are alternatives such as Methyl Iodide (liquid), but this still treats the soil as chemical with chemicals (vs. sustainable biological).

Select other sustainable fruits - blueberries, raspberries, kiwi.

 

*snaps his fingers*

Dang! I forgot the methyl bromide. lol Thanks Skruse.

 

If you can identify what bugs they are, try a book called "Tiny Game Hunting".

 

So how do they produce organic strawberries? I got some at Whole Foods last week that were really large and tasty. They were so large that I was suspicious that they couldn't actually be organic.

The local farmer's markets usually have conventional, non-pesticide, and organic versions. I think non-pesticide is the same as organic, except that the fields haven't been organic for long enough to qualify for the claim. The non-pesticide and organic ones are usually noticeably smaller than the conventional ones.

 

Get the hydroponic pesticide free ones that are huge and very yummy.
Hydroponic is the only way I know of to grow strawberries without pesticides.

 

ditto.

I don't eat 100% organic. Sometimes I eat conventional bananas & whatnot, but for berries I never eat conventional ones. Loaded w/ poisons generally.

 

I just planted some strawberries and a raspberry bush. If they do well I'll be planting more. I buy organic berries at costco, and they very good (use 'em for smoothies). However, they ain't cheap. I'm hoping to grow enough (eventually) that I can put a meaningful dent in the amount that I have to buy. Now that I'm aware of the pesticide issues I'm more motivated.

 

I'd ask you to export me a sample box when you harvest your first batch but I don't relish the thought of having to use fuel to get them to me. Guess I'm going to have to plant my own. Nice work Tripp!

 

I'd buy the ones from the girl with the biggest ......strawberries.

ZC1

 

Fun with fruit classifications. From Wikipedia and MSN Encarta.

Not a botanical berry

Many "berries" are not actual berries by the scientific definition, but fall into one of these categories:

• False berries like blueberry and cranberry, are epigynous, made from a part of the plant other than a single ovary.
• Compound fruit, which includes:
  • Aggregate fruit are multiple fruits with seeds from different ovaries of a single flower, such as blackberry, raspberry, and boysenberry
  • Multiple fruit, being the fruits of separate flowers, packed closely together. The mulberry, for example, is essentially like a cluster of grapes, but tiny and compressed into one "berry"[1].
• Other accessory fruit, where the edible part is not generated by the ovary, such as the strawberry for which the seed-like achenes are actually the "fruit" derived from the ovary.

I love telling people that their "vegetables" are not vegetables and are in fact fruit.

 

I find that strawberries taste sweeter when they have been given time to rest after being picked, about 2 days or so, I would personally go with the first.

 

So does my sister, but I guess thats cause she is a registered dietitian.

 

Then there's the fig, which is not a fruit at all......but a flower.

 

Figs are just crazy. I got the evil eye when I mentioned them during botany class last semester as I had already learned about them in a wildflower ID class (taught by the same professor). My entomology professor thought it was great fun to feed the class a bunch of Fig Newtons then make us watch a documentary on wasps that lay their eggs inside figs. :tsk:

 

I don't know the inspection process of the fig newton people.

We cut them in half before we eat them and have never found anything foreign in them. My parents grow several types of figs. I love them fresh. Many people don't have an opportunity to eat fresh figs.

Pity.

 

I'm not sure of the pollenation procedure the Fig Newton people use either but most figs are pollenated by these little wasps. The males generally never leave the fig. They hatch first, mate with the females (still in their eggs) then die and enzymes break down the bodies of the tiny male wasps. The females then emerge from the fig, pick up pollen on their way out, and look for new figs to enter in which to lay their eggs thus starting the cycle over again.

It's an incredible relationship of which the whole forest benefits from.

Fig Wasp

I agree with the fresh fig eating. There are a bunch of them growing near my grandparents house near Cache Creek and I used to pick them and snack away while catfishing.