Is Local Sweeter? The Epic Conclusion!
Data Collection is complete! Let's find out just how sweet those store-bought strawbs from CA are...
If you remember from my first "It's Sweet" post, I outlined my mini-experiment of measuring the sweetness of some storebought organic strawberries from California (at the day of purchase and over the course of several days in the fridge), with the intention of comparing their sweetness to my TCBC fruit. Well folks, the experiment is complete so lets take a look at some results!
This graph shows average sweetness values (measured in 'brix', discussed in my last post) of berries over time in the 1-lb. clamshell I bought last week. As you can see, the sweetness is hovering around 6 and doesn't seem to reliably decrease as time goes on in the fridge. This is a little surprising to me, but then again this fruit was probably already at least 1 week old by the time I purchased them at the supermarket; perhaps sweetness levels 'plateau' out after a certain period of loss, I'm not sure. Also, obligatory scientific mention of small sample size, blah blah :) Now while the sweetness did not seem to be affected over the week, I still probably wouldn't have eaten the 6-day old fruit, and here's why:
Gross! Mold! Specifically, Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea). Some leather rot in there too. Further proof to me that these strawberries were picked quite awhile ago; grey mold won't usually form to this degree on strawberries when refrigerated within 6 days of picking. So, even though the sweetness of this fruit may not have decreased substantially over time, the quality is still ka-put.
So what do these numbers mean, and how do they relate to local fruits, and TCBC in particular? Well, unfortunately I don't have access to fresh TCBC fruit at this time of year, but I do have access to my peer-reviewed and published data on my strawberries from 2013 onwards, which included measuring sweetness. Taking the average sweetness values from just the varieties that TCBC will be growing shown in that research, and comparing it to the store-bought fruit of my mini experiment, we get this:
TCBC strawberries average sweetness values are 34% higher than the storebought organic stuff. And that's including some of our more subtle varieties; our sweetest type 'Albion' averages 9.4 on the sweetness scale, and I've clocked some individuals in at over 12! You'll have to taste them yourself to see if these increased numbers translate into more delicious fruit, but they sure do for me and I bet they will for you too.
I'll end with trying to address why: why is TCBC sweeter? Is it because I'm a super-grower with all the skillz? Well, I'd like to think that has a little to do with it, but most likely TCBC is going to taste better than most non-local organic strawberries because:
- The fruit was picked more ripe, because it doesn't need to travel/wait up to a week to get to you,
- Consequently, the fruit is more fresh, and highly perishable foods like strawberries lose quality fairly quickly, and
- I pick varieties based on their taste, and not their ability to 'travel well'.