Strawberries: because seeds belong on the outside

$6 for this at Jean-Talon Market. Fresh, delicious strawberries from St. Eustache.

There’s really no better marketing than this for eating local. At least while the season remains at its peak. Don’t let it pass or you’ll have to wait another year.

6 thoughts on “Strawberries: because seeds belong on the outside

  1. Jim Todd

    Nice purchase!

    I could not agree more, Steve. I had my first pint of Ontario strawberries for the season and they were fantastic – the best I’ve had in a long time!

    Reply
  2. gg

    $6? A bargain. Fresh strawbs in Vancouver are double the price, eyeballing what you’ve got there. Buy more! Freeze ’em!

    Reply
  3. Bobby

    Those are not seeds on the outside, but the actual fruits of the strawberry.

    Quoting the excellent On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee:

    “The seeds are actually miniature dry fruits (achenes) similar to buckwheat and sunflower “seeds,” and the fleshy portion is the flower’s swollen base, not its ovary.”

    Remember that strawberries don’t ripen after being picked, so get fresh quebec berries while you can, which is all summer. It is a crime to sell the unripe-when-picked california strawberry imports, which should have “UNRIPE FRUIT” located predominately on the label. Sure, it’s a non-monetary trade tariff, but the right to a decent ripe strawberry that isn’t a week old is a vital part of authentic living (here I am disagreeing with Andrew Potter and his recent book on the lack of actual authenticity in the actual branding of products as containing “Authenticity”).

    I was just forced to eat a retirement present of unripe foreign fruit in a decorative cut-fruit arrangement from edible arrangements. So I have a bit of a hate-on for imported fake strawberries at the moment.

    Reply
  4. Maria Gatti

    I loathe them, Bobby. I never buy strawberries out of season – they taste like styrofoam and are grown in very unsalubrious conditions. I’m eating some – organic to boot – from Jean-Talon Market right now. The organic ones were actually the same price as the non-organic today (in small quantities). The season is actually rather long now, as we have “autumnal” varieties that come onto the market later in the season.

    Have a good retirement! And lots of fresh, local fruit!

    Reply

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