Attractive, suggestive and delicious, strawberries attract the gaze of those who contemplate them. For some, they are their Proust madeleine: the advance of good weather that can be savored in every bite of red sweetness. However, climate change, the modernization of agricultural techniques and food globalization have caused a certain confusion in consumers who are bombarded with all types of information. Who else wonders the least: Why don’t they have the flavor of yesteryear? Is May still the strawberry month or should we extend its duration? What type of fruit are we talking about? Where are you from? Is the name strawberry correct or should we call it strawberry? Why are they so delicate and yet we see how our markets are filled with varieties that have traveled more than 1,000 kilometers in refrigerated trucks? Why do they only last a couple of days in the refrigerator?
Let’s clear up doubts, let’s start at the beginning. Perhaps we are not so wrong and we are asking very old questions, because like almost all foods, today’s strawberries have changed compared to their predecessors: they are larger, redder, somewhat more acidic and they can be planted next to our house or in the opposite hemisphere and arrive so fresh to our tables. He Larousse Gastronomy He clarifies some details in this regard: its shape is as conical today as it was in the times of Imperial Rome and the Middle Ages, but adds that “until the 18th century, only the forest strawberry was known. Its cultivation allowed us to obtain larger fruit varieties and, above all, longer seasons. Jean de La Quintinie, Louis XIV’s gardener, grew strawberries in the gardens of Versailles. But the decisive step was taken in the 18th century with the introduction of the scarlet variety from Virginia and then with the new plants that an explorer with the predestined name, Antoine Amédée Frézier, brought with him from Chile.” That is, today’s strawberry is a hybrid. Something absolutely normal and even necessary for José Miguel Muletprofessor of biotechnology at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and author of We eat what we are. “The farmer can buy varieties that are not hybrids, but they give less production and are of lower quality. The Huelva strawberry, for example, is a hybrid between fragaria virginianawhite strawberry, and the fragaria chiloensis. Hybrid vigor or heterosis is necessary, the result is better than the originals and they have existed for more than 100 years,” explains Mulet.
Joan Marpons, strawberry producer Since the late sixties in the Catalan region of Maresme, he points out that three hybrid varieties are grown on his farm: Albion, of Californian origin, and Amandine and Charlotte, of French origin. “We call them maduixots (strawberries) from Maresme to distinguish them from the small strawberry or forest strawberry that we also produce ecologically and through hydroponic cultivation, trying to minimize the use of increasingly scarce water in this region where the wells, coming from old mines, dry up. at an alarming rate,” says Marpons. For him, “it is never convenient to water strawberries with a conventional system, since it is an extremely delicate fruit,” and he points out that although this product in said region does not have a DO or a PGI, it is “a quality product.” linked to this corner of Catalonia since the 18th century.” “The maduixots from Maresme are firmer, very red, sweeter and slightly acidic thanks to the clay or sauló soil, and the marinade, the air that comes from the sea,” he details. For the producer, the most important thing is that there is a clear identification of the origin beyond a brief barcode or a simple “packaged in Spain”.
Francisco Nieto, owner of The Orchard of Aranjuez matches Marpons: most strawberries are hybrids. “They come from California. They plant them both in Ávila and Segovia, in Morocco or in Portugal. But each product has its own personality depending on the terrain and weather conditions. Our flavor is different because the climate and the land are different. Our production is small, we do not grow under plastic and we focus on local consumption. In our boxes it says Fresa de Aranjuez. It is our ID,” he explains. Nieto insists a lot on the necessary identification and, above all, on not getting carried away by the appearance of freshness of other strawberries. 76 years of trade and four hectares of cultivation are enough for it to be resounding: “Strawberries cannot withstand transportation or humidity. For me it is not worth exporting them, I have always avoided that because it is a product that we work well nearby, and in these spring months, before the extreme heat of this area arrives” he concludes.
![Strawberries from Can Marpons, in Maresme. Image provided by the producer.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/2TOSS3LVO5EH7GXOJMB4GTS6II.jpeg?auth=2ab45d5d3c387736d175b3ddd3315afb12dd50e782da1ff25f417cac5956c2d7&width=414)
However, most of the strawberries we buy have traveled a long way to reach the markets, with the consequent loss of flavor that the consumer notices. Once in the refrigerator, it does not take more than two days for them to go from their brand new appearance to rotting. Evaporation, especially if they are stacked in one kilo boxes next to climacteric fruits, produces fungi that deteriorate them quickly. José Miguel Mulet observes this aspect from another perspective, that of a European who anxiously awaits his shipment of fruit. “What if I lived in Switzerland or Sweden and it was the only way I could eat fruit?” he asks. “It is a question of cost benefit. They are picked green because if they are picked at the point of ripeness they are already too soft and would not hold up. Along the way, ethylene is added, a gas that contains the hormone that these fruits, which are not climacteric—they do not continue their ripening process after harvest—no longer produce. Thanks to refrigerated trucks, Northern Europe eats fruit and vegetables. And we, when we want to eat strawberries outside of these spring months, we will acquire them on the other side of the world. This is what is called off-season cultivation,” concludes Mulet.
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