21st Century Farming

I found this article on current farming techniques for strawberries to be an eye opener.

https://newatlas.com/environment/farming-dyson-strawberries/

Wow - that's really impressive! You do wonder about how the strawberries taste, though. And if they're priced like the vacuums, then they've got to be around $1.00 each. Still, it's a way to deal with the fact that picking naturally grown strawberries is very labor intensive, and it looks like there may be a lot less available labor around here in the near future.

Really interesting video. Thanks!

I have not read the article yet, but have been wondering why some produce like strawberries and Brussels Sprouts are coming into stores in giant sizes. Does the article address that? I do not care for those giants. I have not been to the Farmers Market this year, and I miss it. My puppy wants to get up at 6 am every morning. On Saturdays, I do not have anything scheduled except to cook so I don't want to get up so early. I find the giant sizes less tasty. I saw carrots in another grocery store nearby, a mom-and-pop store that has more gourmet stuff, and their carrots were gigantic. I asked about them and was told they are not selling well, so they shred them up to use in their homemade offerings like salads, casseroles, and sauces.

I have not read the article yet, but have been wondering why some produce like strawberries and Brussels Sprouts are coming into stores in giant sizes. Does the article address that? I do not care for those giants. I have not been to the Farmers Market this year, and I miss it. My puppy wants to get up at 6 am every morning. On Saturdays, I do not have anything scheduled except to cook so I don't want to get up so early. I find the giant sizes less tasty. I saw carrots in another grocery store nearby, a mom-and-pop store that has more gourmet stuff, and their carrots were gigantic. I asked about them and was told they are not selling well, so they shred them up to use in their homemade offerings like salads, casseroles, and sauces.

Blueberries, too, seem to be going into stores supersized. We pick our own in Michigan during the summer months, and the difference in size is striking.

I find the giant sizes less tasty. I saw carrots in another grocery store nearby, a mom-and-pop store that has more gourmet stuff, and their carrots were gigantic.

Add shallots to the list of produce items being sold in gigantic size these days.

The giant carrots are commonplace in Asian markets. In ordinary supermarkets around here I have only seen them in one Market Basket supermarket. It's the one I shop at and it carries a lot of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indian items you don't see in other conventional supermarkets. I have always suspected the giant carrots are an Asian cuisine thing.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Yup, all those carrot slices trimmed into little flower shapes that pretty up some stir fries come from those large carrots. I brought one home from Canada a few months ago and that got me pulled in at the border. They'd never seen one like it so of course it had to be investigated even though anyone could eyeball that it was a carrot.