THERE are plenty of reasons people grow their own fruit and vegetables: it is a satisfying outdoor hobby, it gets you some exercise and the produce has low food miles, usually making it good for the planet too.
Another reason is that many home-grown fruits and vegetables taste better than the ones on sale in shops. The difference is particularly noticeable for some types of produce, such as new potatoes, asparagus, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.
Advertisement
There can be several explanations. One is that the varieties grown by farmers are often different to those sold for home growing. Farmers use varieties best able to be picked and transported to supermarkets without bruising or rotting, or those for which all the fruit reliably ripen at the same time, making for an easier harvest.
Recent work by researchers at the University of Florida into what makes for the tastiest tomatoes has found it is driven by , as well as numerous “volatiles” – biochemicals that are in gas form at room temperatures. As we chew and swallow the flesh of a tomato, these aromatic compounds reach the nose via the back of the throat; what we think of as the tomato’s taste is really a mixture of its taste and smell.
The same is true for strawberries, a crop renowned for sometimes having disappointing flavour when bought from a shop. A key problem for commercial growers is that these fruits may be harvested before they are fully ripe – when volatiles called esters are at their peak – or the fruit gets too bruised during transportation. Once picked, levels of sugars, acids and volatiles in the fruit start to decline, so it is really worth growing them at home or visiting a pick-your-own farm.
I have to admit, strawberries can be hard plants to get much of a crop from. As they lie close to the ground, they can be snaffled by slugs, mice and birds, and can also get splashed by rain and soil, which encourages rot.
I have better luck when I grow them in pots sited on shelves in a greenhouse or fruit cage, which keeps them out of harm’s way. An alternative is to use growbags or pots placed on an outdoor table, or hanging baskets – you just need to put netting over the plant when the fruits start turning red.
Not all the tiny, green, immature fruits that form will survive and mature into ripe, red fruit, but those that do are worth the effort.
In a temperate climate like the UK’s, pick strawberries during the warmest part of the day, when their volatiles peak.
Keeping them in the fridge hastens their loss of taste, but storing them at room temperature will see them quickly becoming mushy. There is nothing for it but to eat them straight away, ideally right off the plant.
What you need
Young strawberry plants
Pots or growbags of compost
An outdoor table
Netting to protect the plants from birds
For other projects visit newscientist.com/maker
