Yes!! Last weekend was our company Holiday dinner, at a nice restaurant. Not all of the food was great, but the slices of tomato were stunning. I remarked to my date that I had actually stopped eating tomatoes, because they’re all pink now. Pink tomatoes! With no taste! Then, behold! A red, ripe, tasty tomato! Was delicious. I mourn the tomatoes.
The strawberries of my youth, ah, they were heaven (had I only appreciated them more at the time). Hoods, I think, were the best, or maybe Marshalls. We did u-pick every year, crates and crates, my mother would freeze or make jam out of most of them, and we got to eat as many as we could of the ones that weren’t fit for freezing.
So much for nostalgia. One thing that pleasantly surprised me about living here was the widespread number of produce markets, conveniently located and with some pretty good fruit sometimes (not good strawberries, of course, not in California ever no matter what the season). Between these shops and the farmer’s markets (3 days a week in different places) a person can do pretty well by fresh produce.
csharpmajor, I know what you mean. Lately we’ve been getting our fruit ‘n’ veg from small greengrocer style shops instead of the supermarket, which is usually cheaper and uglier, but better tasting. If we have the time (rare), we get our stuff from the Fremantle markets, or (if you’re in the south-east of the city) the Swansea St markets or the Cannington market at the corner of Albany Hwy and William St.
I’ve also been to the City Farm organic markets, which are on every Saturday morning near Claisebrook train station in East Perth, but although the quality is great and they let you look around the farm section, play with the chickens and so on, the range is only good if you get there early.
A friend has also recommended something called The Lettuce Shop - apparently they buy fruit ‘n’ veg from growers in bulk, then package it up into whatever you’ve asked for and deliver it to you. My friend reckons she’s always had excellent quality stuff from them, so that now she doesn’t bother to give them a specific order, she just asks them to bring enough for two people and lets them choose whatever looks good that week.
If you have the yard and the time, a fruit and vegetable garden is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
- The exercise you get from gardening is good for you.
- It’s cheap food.
- Hi, Opal!
- It’s generally the best produce you’ll ever eat.
Now, if only one could grow meat without having to deal with taking care of animals, I’d be a happy omnivore.
I grew up in the country and my brother and I use to basically graze in the woods around our house. We had strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, rasberries, wintergreen, hazelnuts, beechnuts, crab apples, asparagus, concord grapes, all there for the picking.
Twatwaffle?
:smack: Right. I knew someone had an American-misleading WA in their location, and I didn’t page back to double-check the location field. I blame the mass producers who grow fruit not for taste, but for pretty appearance and ability to survive long shipments. I keep intending to sign up for a local farm co-op program, where you pay a fee and get weekly or biweekly loads of fruit and veggies - you don’t get much choice over the content, but apparently you get a decent amount of food, and it’s all very fresh and in varieties that actually can be grown for flavor rather than their ability to resemble a baseball in both taste and durability.
And proving that I shouldn’t post before I’m caffeinated - I should also add that this of course is a direct outgrowth of the loss of smaller and more widespread farms, as well as consumers’ expectations to have many fruits and vegetables year-round. I expect many of those bad-tasting Australian strawberries (or wherever they came from) are also being shipped to other countries as well, hence the need to be able to survive the trip intact.
Certain produce types may have trouble getting into wide distribution if they don’t match a particular “look” - take the case of the UglyRipe tomato variety, which sacrifices looks for taste (I’ve had them, they’re good!), and which the state of Florida doesn’t want distributed because they might harm the reputation of Florida tomatoes because… they’re ugly.
LOL! You reminded me of my kids this summer (they’re 2.5) running around with a half eaten apple in one hand, a small plastic bucket full of apples in the other, cheeks busting with apple, and mom running after them yelling at them to stop pulling apples from the tree.
Sigh. I wouldn’t mind trying one of those, you know.
Those UglyRipe tomatoes are just about the best tasting tomatoes ever! Super juicy and full of tomatoey goodness. I can get 'em locally because I live about an hour north of Tallahassee. Also, I make the rounds of the upickem strawberry farms around here when they’re in season. I have lots of fresh frozen strawberries in my freezer. Homemade poundcake with fresh frozen strawberries and real whipped cream is the dessert of all that is dessert goodness.
I wonder what kind of fruit to serve on one of those? 
We’ve had a type of tomato in the markets here for the past few years that’s been quite decent. It’s a red round tomato, smaller than a tennis ball, that’s always “on the vine.” They used to be quite expensive, but the price has come down to 1.99 - 2.99 per pound. Still not cheap, but low enough. They don’t taste nearly as good as Jersey tomatoes or fresh garden tomatoes, but they’re pretty good for winter use. Though I have noticed some dimunition in quality lately.
I hope they don’t go the way of grape tomatoes. We used to only be able to find grape tomatoes at the Asian markets, and they were fantastic. Then they found their way into supermarkets, and they were quite good. Now, they’re everywhere, and they’re lousy.
Certainly not here.
My chidhood favourite was the wild blackberries in the yard across the street. My fingers would be stained purple for about two weeks straight. Blackberry pie, muffins, pancakes, cheesecake, and everything else you could imagine to have blackberries in or on.
Cherry.
They are fantastic. I eat them like apples. The growers, Santa Sweets also produce a wonderful grape tomato that I can eat like popcorn.
I too mourn the passing of tasty, ugly produce as it is being replaced by flavorless, pretty abominations. I see people every day in my store buying these red baseballs masquerading as tomatoes and these horrid, watery / mealy “apples” and I wonder what’s happened to the tastebuds of the average American. It’s just disgusting. The peaches and plums are similary wretched. I miss real ones.
One can only hope there’ll be a revival of artisan produce similar to what happened with beer and microbrews.
Wow, that’s diabolical. Is there no way for the farmer to challenge this cartel in the courts?
The key is to go to the smaller fruit stands. They exist in every city and town.
You’ll find tree ripened fruit that you want to eat right away.
They can get the kind that don’t keep for a week, unlike the supermarkets.
Mmm… tree-rpened strawberries. Makes my mouth water.
They grow strawberries on trees now?