Where are the Strawberries? With the workers in a different country, that's where.

a reply to: stonerwilliam

It’s hard to pick them while holding an iPad.

originally posted by: opethPA
a reply to: JAGStorm

Your experience is not what is happening in the NJ and Philly area.

I live in NJ 15 mins from Center City with family and friends that live in Philly. I have been in chain grocery stores, 2 independent smaller stores and a Produce Junction over the past 3 weeks. This was split between NJ and PA.

All of them have had plentiful selections from different farms.

The point being the truth most likely is someplace between our 2 experiences.

Yep, it depends on a lot of factors and where your area stores get their strawberries, but the late freeze and drought hurt some areas. Here we have a decent selection of strawberries no doubt because it's a southern state. Used to have a great place to pick your own strawberries 20 minutes from Atlanta

"Strawberries are in season from mid-May to early July in the eastern and midwestern northern states," says Dr. Gail Nonnecke, a horticulture professor at Iowa State University and member of The North American Strawberry Growers Association. "Winter production occurs in the southern states, such as Florida in late November through early April.

Strawberries are .99 cent at the big chain grocery stores, i have purchased several times but can't eat em up or figure what to even do with them so they always get tossed! any shortages of strawberries is problematic by distribution, theres way too many strawberries that even Wendy's started selling strawberry frostys!

originally posted by: SprocketUK
Its not that no one wants to do it, its that the farmers wont pay enough to entice people to do it.

It used to be backbreaking work living in a tent on the farm for minimum wage or just below until 2017ish but improved massively but general publiv aren't aware yet.

Farmers in the UK are now offering around £62K a year for workers to pick brassica veg last few years or £30 ph which is a great wage and 4 - 5 times what it was a few years back but they still cant entice enough to make up for loss in east european workers.

Its further compounded by supermarkets price fixing and puttings farms out of buisiness and increasing teh very high suicide rate.

a reply to: bastion

yeah but its also not year round work is it? you will never get a mortgage based on land working rates

a reply to: JAGStorm

It exactly the same here in Britain where the locals are so bone idle they won't do a hard days graft like our ancestors did yet because of Brexit the same d8ckheads voted away the workers who slaved in the fields back to eastern Europe as they couldn't bare any more 'foreigners' yet now they moan when the shelves are empty and nobody wants to do some graft. You couldn't make this total nonsense up if you tried

Its a pity all the stupid people seemed to stay after brexit.
Thats why they are called Remainers...because they remain, like a stain in the boog.

and most are bone muckin idle as they come

a reply to: JAGStorm

Now, mid June to July is 1st Mich harvest. We do have a lot from Calif and Canada...tho expensive. And I for 1 get ticked at out of state produce...when we got em here...

Best

a reply to: Mantiss2021

Cook marmalade

You just need sugar for marmalade making and strawberry. Freeze the glasses you fill after cooking (wait for them to cool down first...). If you do this, it will keep a nicer strawberry-ish color and not turn brown on you. Even then it's still good but the color is not as nice.

yeah, okay, you also need a funnel, marmalade glasses with the correct lids, sterilize the glasses etc....

a reply to: TDDAgain

Jam surely...its only marmalade when you use citrus fruits isnt it? and how many croissants you gonna have to buy? sheesh

a reply to: JAGStorm

Plenty of strawberries here in the stores in the UK and no shortage that i can see.

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

But, but, Blue Passports!

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

But, but, Blue Passports!

Lol that made me laugh

originally posted by: SprocketUK
a reply to: bastion

yeah but its also not year round work is it? you will never get a mortgage based on land working rates

True that - you can get several months brassica picking work by succesive sowing and using varieties of spring/autumn/winter harvest varieties but one week of nasty storms can destroy the whole years crop and sprouts wont form properly without hard frosts and even on a good winter there's little to do from Nov to Feb.

This year has been strange as up until a month ago it was struggling to get above 10C in the day and was too wet to plant but for the last monthhas been 20+C sunny every day and no rain - got several buckets of strawberies already and kilos of spinach ready for harvest but hoping we get some rain soon or my potatoes snd tomatoes are screwed.

Shops have strawberies round here but they're crazy prices and are a really easy crop to grow indoors or on a windowsil, plus the plants are now cheaper than a punnet.

peru
is the number 1 exporter of blueberries..

i've gotten them from s africa too.

Tasmanian cherries are the bomb.

$$$$ tho.

my wife and her friends went and picked strawberries on some farm. you pay a certain price and go for it.

they were good.

a reply to: sarahvital

You used to pay by the punnet when you went strawberry picking.

They probably just weigh them now.

Used to be a good day out with the kids all the same.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: sarahvital

You used to pay by the punnet when you went strawberry picking.

They probably just weigh them now.

Used to be a good day out with the kids all the same.

yeah. they had fun

i sliced up a bunch and added some sugar and put them in a container in the fridge. makes a nice sauce for ice cream or pastries etc. grand marnier or rum added is nice for a more adult treat after day or 2. no color loss.

a reply to: andy06shake

I used to eat more than I put in the punnet