Yes, I eat strawberries in February, no they're not Swiss, yes they are from Spain and yes they taste good!

The number of comments I get from my Swiss colleagues when I eat them is starting to get on my nerves! "Strawberries in February?"

I see their point but I love strawberries and if they're in the shops now I will buy them!

It isn't exactly ecologically or environmentally sound, and they are crappy compared to fresh local strawberries grown in season, but to each his own. I certainly wouldn't bother.

When your swiss friends twitch because you ate Strawberries in Feb, it is really about unfamiliarity and "anger" of the changes enabled by Globalisation and super-efficient farming and logistics-transport.

With efficient and clever farming, anything can be grown anywhere. It is a matter of cost.

With super efficient transport, anything can be flown to your door.

Happy eating!
I love strawberries too!
Yes, I ate them last week.

Strawberries are available here in Spain since this months, yes. And they are delicious. They are well grown and very tasty. In south of Spain were the weather is warmer, it isn't a problem to grow them nor to be as good as any other colder countries where they can grow them only during a short warm season.

So I'll say, go for it! We are already enjoying them and they are delicious!

I do not know what is worse, the fact that I am not in tune with seasonal fruit growing, and therefore, not put into shock when a fruit arrives out of season, or the fact that this is a discussion point / shock value in an office environment or anywhere.

I don't know if that's quite true. Spain's relative location may allow for an earlier growing season, which would mean that these strawberries could be grown in an environmentally sound manner and be in-season there. (To be fair, I AM making a supposition, I don't actually know...) With regards to the localvore angle, that doesn't always prove to be a true benefit.

In all respects, if you like the strawberries, by all means, enjoy!

Since being in Switzerland I`ve gotten used to eating the seasonal local fruits, and I must say they are much better than any imported stuff. More sweet and juicy.

The big "perfect" imported fruits in shops - they only look good.
I used to believe that strawberries HAD to have sugar sprinkled on them to make them sweet!

A local farmer here cannot sell his produce in the shops because they`re not "perfect" looking - but boy do they taste super!

One item which I DO enjoy, from Spain, are their Navel Oranges for juicing - one orange makes a glass full of juice

There`s something to be said for eating yourself sick during seasonal local fruits/veges - by the time the next year arrives, you`re looking forward again to the taste.

I do so miss SA avocados - the big buttery ones!

I hear you but I come from the UK where it's the norm to have 'unseasonal' food all year round!

Anyway, I will go back to picking the seeds out of my teeth...

You've had them for breakfast?

Fresh fruit is a fantastic breakfast! I can't wait until melons come around, as I love cantaloupe...

It's also the norm for it to be tasteless.

It's also the norm for the buyers of such produce not to notice the lack of taste.

Oh! I will nag you now, we have sweet, juicy melon since a while already! Miam Miam!

Funny how people are quite happy to eat imported olives, imported oranges or imported almonds but get all snotty about imported strawberries or cucumbers.

If you like them and they're for sale, eat them. Anyone who has a problem with that can bugger off and be a hypocritical toad somewhere else.

I can't comment too much on this, as we Americans have been horrible about this with our cars...

Let them eat cake horse!

I like the fact that the Swiss care about seasonal ingredients. I think it is better for health because it pushes you to eat with the cadence of the year and so eat with more variety.....pumpkin soup in autumn and the crack of fresh local asparagus in spring, rather than the limp, flaccid Mexican imports. It also just doesn't taste as good....forced strawberries have almost no flavour IMO.

And to the Swiss, its an anathema to them watching you eat it, its like letting you throw PET in the trash or turn on the air con.

Thing is though......they reckon swiss seasonal products to be better, but when you have seen the huge greenhouses growing tomatoes near Murten for example, just being grown in Switzerland does mean that they are grown with any greater environmental concern (save for transport) or taste than anywhere else

It's not just the imported strawberries that are bad in the U.K. The ones sold in supermarkets are varieties with specific attributes - namely - they look nice and most importantly, they store well. Taste doesn't come into it.

I've never eaten an orange north of the Alps that tasted anywhere near as nice as the ones I plucked straight off the tree in Greece when I lived there.

Does that mean that I shouldn't eat imported oranges and only eat the fruit when I visit the Med?

This locavore thing is very selective, I've noticed...

Buy some, bring them to your work, put them on your desk with a note "help yourself" - you'll see if they resist... then you can tell them the same

Oranges have a season too. Even if they're imported. I wouldn't buy them out of season.