I cant believe I just ate.....

[ZenGum]

I have kinfolks who worked briefly on strawberry farms in Queensland.
The ones sent to the city were always the firm (to survive transit) ones, but they had generally been held in cool rooms for a week or two first until the market price was ready.
Meanwhile, the locals were buying bucketloads of fresh, ripe, soft, flavoursome strawberries at $2 per kilogram. "Seconds" were given away free to the pickers, and were sometimes used as compost or fertiliser, straight onto the garden, not because they were inedible, but simply because there was way too much. Life is hard, sometimes.