How Do Indestructo Berries Impact Produce Shipping and Taste?

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The discussion highlights the challenges of shipping produce, particularly strawberries, which are bred for resilience to withstand transit jostling. This has led to the prevalence of "indestructo" strawberries that lack flavor and sweetness, as they are designed to survive rough handling rather than ripen properly. The conversation emphasizes the importance of sourcing locally grown, non-resilient berries for better taste and quality. The speaker expresses a commitment to finding local growers who produce flavorful strawberries, contrasting them with the less desirable grocery store varieties. Overall, the thread underscores the impact of agricultural practices on the quality of produce available to consumers.
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I was helping the curator of a small museum with software. We got to talking about his day job. Turns out he coordinates the shipping of produce from producers to most of the grocery brokers and chains from the Mountain states to the West Coast. And parts of Mexico. Impressive.

Anyway we got to talking about that. Apparently because of the way produce is shipped all over the place there is a demand for "indestructo" strawberries. I live in New Mexico and the berries we get in chain stores are not really ripe and they seem to stay hard for quite a while, without ever getting really sweet and soft.

This is a feature. Thanks to applied genetics run a bit amok, IMO. When berries are shipped via large truck, they experience lots of heavy duty jostling in transit. Pot holes, wear ridges at intersections all send the berries for a jump. When the berries are "normal" they do not make the journey unscathed. So what was needed what a very resilient berry. In fact breeding these guys used the same kind of stair mechanism used to sort out good/bad cranberries. A bounce test. Fail to bounce enough and the breeders reject the stock.

Hah! I tried this on my own. Almost all of my sample test victims, when dropped about one foot, produced about a 3 inch rebound. They are not even slightly flavorful. :frown: They also did not seem to bruise from my abuse. Can't have everything I guess.

I can be taught. I am going to find a local, non-resilient berry grower.
 
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Yeah, we gave up buying grocery store strawberries several years ago for that reason. If we can't get them from one of the local farm markets, we don't get them.
 
Gummiberries.
 
"Tomatoes[insert]Strawberries[/insert] fit to be picked by machines, are fit only to be eaten by machines."
 
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jim mcnamara said:
I am going to find a local, non-resilient berry grower
What you need is a resilient berry grower, one who can raise non-resilient berries. :oldbiggrin:
 
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Perhaps the reason I have never liked strawberries is far more practical than I thought.
 
ChemAir said:
Perhaps the reason I have never liked strawberries is far more practical than I thought.
If you've never had freshly picked home grown strawberries, you're in for a treat.
 
phinds said:
home grown strawberries, you're in for a treat.
Haarrrdddd to find (pun intended, or not).
 
Bystander said:
Haarrrdddd to find (pun intended, or not).
The same goes for ripe, home grown peaches.
I ripe peach does not travel well.
 

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