Jan 28, 2019

Just thumbing through a mail order catalog from a high end retailer yesterday afternoon for a Valentine's Day gift (don't forget all that this day is also our big annual strawberry production research meeting in Watsonville!) for my one and only, when my eyes lit upon the arresting photo below. 

Those blackberries are more than half reverted to red.  How is this even possible for a STAGED photograph?

Once I settled down again, it did dawn on me that our blackberry growers and we researchers are a bit ahead of the game in insisting the blackberries we sell to our customers, who aren't necessarily picky about it, be all black, with no blemishes, discoloration or crumbliness. 

Perhaps we could describe it as being much as in the same way that Apple does, that we are striving to make things that people don't even know yet they need.

By Mark Bolda
Author - County Director, Santa Cruz County and Farm Advisor, Strawberries & Caneberries

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