erTokyo’s Self-Picked Strawberries

The Sweetest Snack

Did you know that Japan is the largest metropolitan region in the world? Did you know it houses 13.8 million people? That’s 6,225 people per square kilometer. Now, would you expect a self-pick strawberry farm in Tokyo?

Well, it turns out that there are at least three. For two, you would have to pay for half an hour of unlimited picking; at the third, you would pay by the weight you picked. We chose the latter and met up with our good friend Rey for an afternoon of strawberry picking.

In Canada, the commercial strawberries are grown to be as large as possible and are often disfigured, probably due to steroids. They also don’t have a whole lot of taste, which makes wild strawberries grown in a neighbour’s backyard better, since they’re usually juicer and sweeter. Japanese strawberries are closer to the wild Canadian strawberries, in that they’re smaller but far better in taste.

This farm was a small family-owned greenhouse in the suburbs that grew three types of strawberries. We didn’t even know that there were three types, let alone that they would taste distinctly different. One type tasted a little sweeter than a Canadian strawberry, while another tasted just like strawberry candy! I’d always thought that strawberry-flavoured ice cream and candy doesn’t taste like strawberries, but now I know that I’ve been comparing them to the wrong variety.

The owner was also kind enough to let us sample each flavour while we were picking, so we knew what we were getting. The other difference from Canadian strawberries is that almost every strawberry you find in Japan is a perfect rounded conical shape. The Japanese are obsessed with presentation, so you never see old or bad-looking food in a supermarket; even at the farm, it was all very orderly. I think this is because the strawberries are grown in a greenhouse on tables, rather than as bushes on the ground, so the strawberries can hang freely and grow evenly.

We may have bought an excessive amount of strawberries (they’re not cheap), but then we sat outside and had a flavourful picnic.

We visited the farm in late May, which is at the end of the main strawberry season in Japan, but we had no problem finding heaps of strawberries on the bushes. I didn’t expect to be able to pick strawberries in a major urban city and at this time of year, but I’m not complaining!