strawberrys

[Nicos]

We grow Marshmello too and are very pleased with the flavour.One year they were kept under fleece for the winter and spring (taking it off when we were worrking on the allotment to allow the bees to do their bit)and we were eating them mid May. The following year the slugs found them so they've been left uncovered since!

[andrewo]

Marshmello

Marshmello, truly, I can't say enough about this type of strawberry, they taste like strawberries used to do before kettle drums. Jax, such a festering attack on Elsanta! Glad to see someone else feels the same! I have the same quibble about apples from supermarkets and potatoes (trust me, a home grown potato does not compare to shop bought, it's like saying going to London is the same as walking on the moon).

Andrewo

[Jaxom]

Andrewo. It took me years to understand why I didn't like strawberries. I used to decline them at peoples houses when invited, as they were always hard and acidic, or large and flavourless.
Now I know why. It took the program about supermarket food to explain it to me. Till then I could not understand why I loved eating fresh strawberries in Paris but hated them here in the UK.
When I see fresh strawberries for sale I always check what variety they are before buying. It seems very unfortunate that the best tasting strawberries don’t travel as they bruise too easy.
Writing this reminds me of the market in Paris during my last spring visit. The local market was full of fruit and vegetables and some of the sellers had masses of strawberries piled up for sale. The sent of the strawberries was so strong it was heavenly. I would rather have one tasty strawberry that a whole punnet of tasteless cardboard.
Jax

[andrewo]

Agree

Jaxom, totally agree, I think they should ban the movement of veg over twenty miles or at least get supermarkets to stock regional produce. They have done this not just with vegetables but to our meat. We are becoming a bland nation. I applauded when the French boycotted a well known fast food giant coming to their country - who wants more cardboard food? The first time I tasted a true strawberry it took me back twenty years to when my own father grew them on his allotment, that's two decades of having to smother them with sugar just to make them pallatable. No wonder we are becoming a nation of diabetics, chlorestorel high fatties, we sucker on fat and sugar because that the only taste we get from the high street supermarket.

Roll on regional food, regional specialities, and grow your own!

This has been a party political message for everyone sick of those green little things they put on top of burgers and laughingly call gherkins.

Andrewo

[Nicos]

I'm sure that my high cholesterol comes from all the butter I roll my freshly picked veg in. I was fine until we started growing our own veg! mmm... butter and garlic.....mmmmm!

[Lesley Jay]

I totally agree about the need for supermarkets to source local food. Something needs to be done in this country about the number of miles our food travels up and down the motorways.

I was determined to do something about the food that I buy and after alot (and I mean alot) of searching I found a local farm where I can buy my meat from. Meat that was reared on the farm, slaughtered on the farm, butchered on the farm and finally sold on the farm. Any animals that they do not rear on the farm themselves come from local farms and they can tell you exactly which farm it is. But all that meat is slaughtered on the farm. I grow my own vegetables and as I only grow early potatoes I buy potatoes from the local farm.

I must say it is the best tasting meat that I have ever had and it is cheaper than the supermarkets or the butchers.

[Lesley Jay]

I have just realised that the thread is about strawberries!! Not to worry.

[nots so bad lad]

Ebay

Hi have a look on ebay just bought 30 sympony strawberry plants for a £10 bloke says their organic as well came wrapped in bubble wrap inside a plastic compost bag i let you know if there any good Ps ALSORTS on ebay seeds plants you name its their.

[nick the grief]

]Royal Sovereign[/URL] seems to be one recommended for "old fashioned flavour".

Marshmello has already had the thumbs up here - anyone got any comments on the other three?

Hi CC,

Royal sovereign & Cambridge favourite are excellent flavour but the are both about 50 yrs old so are prone to all sorts of disease. If you can put up with this, try them by all means. I guess the inherited varieties are probably one of these as they are the sort that would have been handed round the lottie plots.

Luckily, these days they seem to be breeding more for flavour than use by the LSO

Having got that off my chest, I grow Alice, Mae & Flamenco and these come highly rocommended as the first year I grew them i some posh terracota pots (pre lottie) and my highly intelligent cocker spaniel ate the lot I naturally accused my wife & children till I saw her eat the last one! Another reason for getting a lottie - she doesn't know where it is

ntg