PASSIONATE RATIONS

Strawberries haven’t been the same since my childhood.   I remember them as deep red, tender, juicy, fragrant, flavorful and sweet—a favorite treat.  Rarely in my adult life, however, do I find strawberries worth the time it takes to eat them.  Every time I bite into one that looks promising, it results in anticlimax.  They are either pale or mealy, over-tart or dry, and never as sweet as memory makes them.   This has been true whether they have come from grocery store or field.

I thought maybe I’d found the answer to my recurring disappointment when I read about a theory associated with bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in my local paper.  In the decades since my youth, honey bees have become the homogenized work horse of the mass food industry.  The loss in honey-bee diversity may have resulted in accompanying losses in food quality and flavor, according to the theory.  “Ah ha!” I thought.  “Maybe that explains the strawberry’s downfall.”

It turns out, however, that strawberries are not particularly reliant on honey bees for pollination and that, in fact, if CCD takes hold, we may find ourselves with a glut of strawberries and a dearth of other soft fruits.

So, the mystery continues to perplex me.

Perhaps it is just a faulty memory.  Or perhaps mom was sweetening things up all along….

Whatever the reason for the dissonance between past and present, my quest to re-discover the berry of my youth continues.  I’ll let you know if I find an answer…or at least a strawberry worth sharing.