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Do you eat them?
If so, how do you wash them?
If not, do you eat them frozen with a hechsher?
You can get fresh now from Kosher Gardens
The Kof K says that if you cut off the green part, soak in soapy water for 5 minutes, and wash while rubbing under a heavy stream of water, they’re fine. The problem with that is that the thrips and thrips larvae hide under the seeds, and there’s no way to get them out even with rigorous washing.
I will buy cheap, fat strawberries, remove the green, peel off the outer layer, and wash. If I’m lazy these days, I’ll buy the Kosher Gardens ones.
I don’t buy Bodek frozen or any other brand of frozen with a hechsher, although I wouldn’t chas veshalom say that they’re asur.
I eat the frozen with a hechsher (I forgot which one – I haven’t in a while), blende, or fresh, if washed properly AND blended into a smoothie or peeled. That’s also not common for me.
Our rav says you can eat the frozen with a hechsher strawberries blended.
Kosher Gardens has a frozen strawberries? Yippee! (That’s the one with Rabbi Vy, right?)
I haven’t used strawberries in the past several years unless they were completely peeled and washed. Yes, I PEELED strawberries. (You can imagine how rarely I bought them, simply because of that!)
Dov, be aware that even according to those that permit cutting off green part, they caution that you should be careful to not expose the hole in the strawberry before the stawberry is washed, as little buggies can quickly run inside.
Gemora states that Rabbi Yochanon Kohen Godol became a tzedoki at 120 years old. What happened was this. They brought him strawberries and he ate. The the other rabbis said wait you cant eat strawberries. Rav Yochanon said, no problem and ate more. And the rabbis said, omg he is a tzedoki. He doesn’t listen to te rabbis.
I peeled strawberries, too, until Kosher Gardens came out with strawberries. And yes, it has the hechsher of Rav Vaye, the undisputed expert on tolaim.
The hashgachos say that if you make a hole, to then cut the strawberry in half to expose the inside to washing.
Here’s the issue with strawberries, though. If you understand that the thrips and thrips larvae hide under the seeds and don’t come out easily, there’s no amount of washing,soaking, or checking that can help.
Same is true of figs, which are very hard to check.
Dov, you made my day! Thanks for the info!
I’m not sure if they’re frozen, but they do have fresh strawberries under hashgacha.
They also sell fresh blueberries. While the hashgachos generally believe there’s no issue of tolaim in cultivated blueberries, experts have checked them and found scale insects in the crown part on top of the blueberry and have found maggots inside the berries themselves. Kosher Gardens came out with the first ever blueberries where they check for these insects.
I now buy all my produce from them. Romaine, cabbage, iceberg, baby spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, scallions, cilantro, parsley, arugula, dill, kale, and mesclun. Many of these items I’ve never even had before. Also, there are quite a few heimish hechsherim that allow only Postiv produce, which is a big hiddur. I will also use Eden or B’gan products too.
I have cleaned many thousands of fresh strawberries and afterwards, upon inspection, have never seen any bug or worm. Also, always slice the strawberries in half to be sure.
Do not store strawberries or other berries, use them immediately.
Perhaps smaller stores or fruit stands don’t have the quick turnover or storing facilities as a Whole Foods for keeping fresh berries from going bad and hatching the larva.
theprof1: Where did you find that story about Jochanan Kohen Godol? I doubt if strawberries were even available in Eretz Yiroel on those days.
Eight month old thread***
Good to read if you want to lose your appetite.
Rabbiofberlin, I think he was probably joking.
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