Keeping strawberries fresh

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Oh now that sounds just decadent GG......where do I get that?:yum:
It has to be a specialty store that carries good quality plain and flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars. I know there's one in Temecula - we went when I visited my sister there. I don't know if that's anywhere near you, but there should be something in southern California.
 
I just read that California farmers can't get enough workers to pick the whole crop and have to let it rot in the fields or plow it under.

Don't believe everything you read. Oxnard has three harvests every year, so fresh picked strawberries are available year 'round.
 
Store bought strawberries can go moldy in a heartbeat. Home grown picked when red but still firm will last a week or longer.

Why? I learned this when I used to work for a trucking company that hauls produce: Strawberries need to ripen on the vine to be sweet enough for us to like them, but they also need to be shipped, often across the country and, a truck takes 3 to 4 days to drive that far. Add to that a day for packing them before shipment and, a day for the grocery warehouse to get them to the store, the one more day in the cooler before they are on the shelf for us to buy. Well that's roughly a week of their self life gone already.

Now, trucking companies and, warehouses have a little trick, if the berries are pretty much firm but a few are going moldy - the gas them with ammonia. the mold disappears, berries look and smell fine but, you buy them and, in a day or two, when all of that ammonia wears off, they mold rapidly because not all of the first bit of mold spores was ever killed. Remove what's preventing mold growth and, it grows on our berries.

How to avoid those berries? Look carefully at the box you want to buy - do not buy any bruised, soft or even minutely wet berries. They should be firm, dry and slightly glossy, some should have a small amount of green near the stem, none should be extremely dark red. Those will keep 5-6 days, maybe longer in a cold enough refrigerator. Mine do fine for 10 to 14 days at 34 F.
 
Store bought strawberries can go moldy in a heartbeat. Home grown picked when red but still firm will last a week or longer.

Why? I learned this when I used to work for a trucking company that hauls produce: Strawberries need to ripen on the vine to be sweet enough for us to like them, but they also need to be shipped, often across the country and, a truck takes 3 to 4 days to drive that far. Add to that a day for packing them before shipment and, a day for the grocery warehouse to get them to the store, the one more day in the cooler before they are on the shelf for us to buy. Well that's roughly a week of their self life gone already.

Now, trucking companies and, warehouses have a little trick, if the berries are pretty much firm but a few are going moldy - the gas them with ammonia. the mold disappears, berries look and smell fine but, you buy them and, in a day or two, when all of that ammonia wears off, they mold rapidly because not all of the first bit of mold spores was ever killed. Remove what's preventing mold growth and, it grows on our berries.

How to avoid those berries? Look carefully at the box you want to buy - do not buy any bruised, soft or even minutely wet berries. They should be firm, dry and slightly glossy, some should have a small amount of green near the stem, none should be extremely dark red. Those will keep 5-6 days, maybe longer in a cold enough refrigerator. Mine do fine for 10 to 14 days at 34 F.

Thank you for the information!!! It reminds me of an article about eggs and how long they are actually out. I'm glad I have fresh farm eggs, we are thinking of raising meat for ourselves ( his family have done it before) now I need to get working on my garden! I bought a cheap greenhouse yesterday to see how I would do and like it but I'm saving lots of old windows to actually build myself one !
 
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I got a two for one deal on strawberries, the usual good sized plastic carton size. The first carton I cut up and poured a ton of sugar on it, for breakfast/brunch type eating. The second carton sat in the fridge for a good week, and only showed slight dark discoloration on parts of the berries when I cut them up and sugar coated them again. They were equally delicious. ( I pour a heavy load of sugar on my strawberries).
 
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Store bought strawberries can go moldy in a heartbeat. Home grown picked when red but still firm will last a week or longer.

I never buy strawberries in a store. I have at least 7 roadside produce stands within 2 miles of my house, and, being it is Oxnard, they all sell fresh picked strawberries, and they keep the biggest, sweetest ones for their stands before shipping the rest off to the packers. Since I have lived in the Oxnard area, I have never had to macerate strawberries.
 
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