[_a_a_a_]

Very much agreed. Even within my lifetime things have changed for the better ('better' = nicer for humans). When I was a kid aubergines had a strong bitterness that had to be soaked out of them with salt and water, and not with perfect success. Modern aubergines completely lack that bitterness.

Wild strawberries sound great but they are tiny, ripen very unevenly and don't even taste that exciting.

The breeding of grapes clearly continues, in a stall not far from me I can see grapes for sale that are literally the size of small plums. (edit: cultivated plums that is. Wild plums, you're welcome to them, small and sour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloe)

Whilst food tends to be much smaller, bitter or sour, tougher to chew, lower in sugar and would not sell in a supermarket.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/craproot

[adrianN]

Wild strawberries are absolutely wonderful compared to cultivars you can buy.

[lproven]

100% this.

I never liked strawberries much until I my ex-fiancée took me for an afternoon picking wild ones in the beech forest above a fjord in southern Norway (near Porsgrunn). Only the size of garden peas, but a taste explosion in the mouth: intense flavour and intoxicating sweetness. Absolutely wonderful.

The giant store-bought things are pale and uninteresting by comparison. I can't eat them. They are like the ghosts of fruit.

My friend's wild strawberries in his garden in South Moravia are nearly as good. Similarly tiny, similarly intense.

[_a_a_a_]

Interesting. I wonder if it's the difference in climate (does Norway get hot in summer?) or in species of strawberry or both. Sounds like you got the better deal anyway.

[_a_a_a_]

Can you give your experiences please?

When I lived in North Wales decades ago we had wild strawberries, they were about two or three times the volume of a chickpea in size (IIRC), and in two years I only ever found one that was ripe all the way around (they usually ripen on one side, or had a large patch of white unripeness even when the rest was red). I don't even remember that one tasting particularly stunning either.

[adrianN]

In my experience wild strawberries have an almost explosive aroma that is similar to but different from cultivated strawberries. In contrast to cultivated strawberries the sweetness is very subdued.

[_a_a_a_]

Perhaps you lived somewhere much warmer weather could ripen properly. North Wales has much to offer[1] but a tropic clime is not one of them.

[1] rain, rocks, sheep, rain, snow, rain, coal, slate, rain, sheep with rain, rocks and sheep with rain, rain.

[adrianN]

Come visit Germany during strawberry season :)

[Loughla]

Where is that? Growing up in the nursery us, wild strawberries there were small. And if they had flavor, it was mostly sour.