My go to choices for fruit tend to be pretty mundane. I regularly consume and enjoy apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, various berries (straw and blue are right up there). Never got into bananas.
But in recent years, I’ve fallen in love with Pomegranates.
The damn things are certainly hard to open, to harvest the tasty and delicious seeds. But I’ve become an expert on carving off the top like it’s a pumpkin to be turned into a jack o lantern, then slicing down the sides along the septae to split the thing into 5 or 6 segments for easy plucking.
This past pomegranate season, the Mrs. started buying them from Costco; their HUUUGE version of the fruit, each of which provided nearly a cupful of seeds. We’d then binge on them straight, or throw them into our daily yoghurt or cereal serving. They’re great on salad.
But alas the season for them is over. I just carved up my last holdout, a dried, wizened example of the species. I was lucky to have not sliced a finger getting that puppy open. Even at its advanced age, it still supplied us with one last half cupful.
So which fruit do you crave? Which are you willing to really work for?
I just discovered fresh pineapple. I had overlooked it for no good reason. I just never bought precut fruit becuase it was never ripe, and I never had a corer.
But now I always have a pineapple. You can get a couple pounds out of one and it keeps in the fridge for a week.
I cannot think of a fruit I do not like. I really crave the fruits that are difficult to find, like Soursop, which I’ve only found twice in the Caribbean. Melons of every variety are favorites.
Y’all ain’t lived until you figure out how to work a prickly pear into your menu at least once. And I mean the actual fruit of the prickly pear, not the leaves of the plant.
Grapefruit. The fruit of potentially dangerous interactions with medications.* Which has meant that for 5+ years I have been deprived of them. But I have been off the meds since January, and I am busy making up for (literally) lost time.
Think its just a case of the thing you can’t have?
j
Not all medications, but many. Be sure to check the pack insert.
I have a stomach that doesn’t always appreciate fresh fruit, so I rarely eat any. But I will risk unpleasant consequences for fresh pineapple.
My father enlisted in the Army after HS, and was stationed in Hawaii. He discovered fresh pineapple there, and would not allow any other kind in his house, so that is what I grew up with. When Mr. Celtic Knot and I moved to Saipan as newlyweds, I was anticipating fresh pineapple all the time. Sadly, no. AFAICT, the only pineapple plant in the CNMI was at the botanical gardens, and they weren’t selling.
I don’t buy whole pineapples, because I can’t eat a whole one, and I hate to see it go to waste.
All the grocery stores around here have little plastic packs of pomegranate seeds in the fruit section, and they’re good! Has that not made it down south?
As for me - boy, I can’t pick a fruit that’s my “favorite.” Right now what comes to mind are the local ones that remind me of my childhood, and I can’t readily get unless it’s the perfect season and I’m in the right place. Fresh wild blueberries picked right off the bush in the woods surrounding my town. Bilberriesthat grow in the forest around Copper Harbor, MI. Serviceberries that only show up some summers and when they do, they show up with such multitudes that you find the trees by looking at the ground underneath - it’ll be purple from the ripe fruits that drop and splat.
I love all fruit, but because of diet, diabetes and kidney problems, I’ve had to cut way back in most. The healthiest fruit for me is apples. They were never at the top of my list, but I’m enjoying them now nonetheless. Gala and Honeycrisp are my favorites.
I have never met one I didn’t like. Even after I had a stroke and most things tasted weird for awhile (this is almost completely back to normal now), fruit was still good. I think my very favorite is a ripe peach. I also love the combo of strawberry and banana, there is a taste synergy there.
I also loves most kinds, but a recent-ish discovery is what here in Italy are called “Nespole”. I’d never had them before so had to look up the English word which is “loquat”. Sweet and sharp and delicious and, while easy enough to eat, they are extra special because the season for them is quite short.
Apples. However, I only buy them in the fall, from orchards. Even Red Delicious apples are good if you get them at the orchard. My favorite apple is the King David, with Winesaps close behind.
I guess watermelon would be in second place, even though they’re legally vegetables here in the state of Georgia.
I think I’m going to vote pomegrantes, too. My fingers are purple through both seasons (the November-December and then there’s another one six months away with the other hemisphere has a harvest) Although I think they’re doing better at extending how long the “fresh” season lasts. It used to be very restrict, just about six weeks and now - well, apparently you’ve found some as late as the beginning of March.
Just sayin’ - Meijers is now offering the little nuggets of heaven sans wrappers, in plastic cups by the cut fruit area in produce. Of course, you pay a bit more for the convenience…
After pomes, my favorite would be plums, then honeydew, Rainier cherries, grapefruit and watermelon.
I eat a lot of bananas, though, because they’re cheap and come in their own biodegradable packaging.
About the only fruits I don’t like are oranges. Because they make me break out in hives. The rest of the citrus family I seem to be OK with, but, alas, somehow this made it into my Official Medical Record as “citrus allergy” when I was hospitalized in 20015 with norovirus and apparently there is no way to correct this without appearing to be a loon (“adult food allergies are very rare, what makes you think you have them?” Um… a couple of trips to the ER in allergic shock after eating the wrong food…?)
Fresh mangoes also seem a bit irritating, but I don’t think that’s an actual allergy. Maybe oral allergy syndrome, which I sometimes have problems with (and I LOVE honeydew melons!)
Although apparently pomegranate has similar interactions, it’s just less well known because the fruit itself is uncommon, and because people don’t eat as much of it. (The article I saw was specifically on people who drank pomegranate juice).
I love pomegranates, but HATE getting the seeds out of them. Thankfully our grocery store does all the work and sells just the seeds & they’re available year round. But never eat them while wearing anything white. You can never get pomegranate stains out.
I love the look of a pomegranate rather than the taste. I like having avocados and unripe papaya for guacamole and thai salads respectively but they are really just delivery mechanisms.
Vittoria or sable grapes are probably my favourite, closely followed by raspberries. The most incredible fruit I ever put in my mouth was a tiny alpine strawberry on the Grossglockner road in Austria. About 5mm across and the most intense flavour I have ever experienced.
Value for money I’d go with pineapple. I bought one a few days ago for 69p. I let it ripen for a few days and prepped it last night. I got 850g of fruit cubes out of it. That is really good value.
