Where does flavor come from? And how can I make the most delicious and flavorful crops possible?
A widespread belief says that good soil means good flavor in vegetables. Perhaps the place where this idea is the most strongly held is the wine world. (A place where many strong beliefs are held). The question of flavor as being caused mostly by genetics or soil conditions is strongly linked to a parallel question if nutrient content is influenced by variety (genetics) or soil conditions (location). Flavor after all is a matter of the vegetable or fruit containing flavorful nutrients. Some nutrients do not have any flavor though (e.g. anthocyanins which color carrots purple).
I found an article by Magnus Westling and colleagues at Ă–rebro University. In their study they compared flavor profiles of field peas and correlated to variety (genetics) and location (soil conditions). What they found is that flavor in the landrace pea accessions they studied was primarily attributed to the chosen accession, i.e. genetic variation.
It will be both genetic and environmental. Which has the stronger influence will probably vary depending on species.
David The Good did trials of different nutrients/fertilizers growing radishes and the results were very different flavors in each different group.
He described the bed fertilized with commercial 10-10-10 fertilizer as being much more harsh and spicy, and if I remember correctly the “best tasting” came from a bed he amended with alfalfa which produced a slightly sweeter flavor.
I’ve seen the video now, but there doesn’t seem to be anything about flavor in it. Is there are written source to this experiment where he described the setup a bit more? For example, I notice that the test didn’t control for different varieties (genetics). I’m a bit a skeptical to these single tests with no controls and the person seems highly invested in a certain result and is also the same person evaluating the flavor. These things can bias how we score flavor. If I wanted to prove a point or find out what influences flavor in a crop, I would want to get someone that is not invested in a certain result to taste the samples
(I also wonder if this is before David the Good stumbled upon Joseph’s book)
In the video, the sample size couldn’t be smaller - it’s just one plant. Since there’s no control for variety, how can we know that difference in flavor is not caused by other things? The plants were also different in the same beds and he took time to select candidates out of those differences. The tasters also know which sample they are tasting (i.e. not blind). My concern is that there’s a deeper bias here the difference in flavor should be primarily about soil in the first place. Being invested in making interesting video content makes it unlikely to produce less interesting results like say - “the differences are small and we’re not sure if they are about soil conditions”. I can’t see how this test can provide reliable answers to the question of the thread.
