Could someone please invent a timer that tells you when fruit turns from a rock into sludge so it can be eaten in that microsecond. Could they also supply a syringe with that particular fruit flavouring so it tastes like something. Fruit that "ripens" in the refrigerator unit on the way to market is just wrong. They have also selected varieties that have thick skins so they do not bruise and ones that look good but taste like nothing. I think this is an argument for local growing of fruit even if it costs a bit more. I am buying some fruit at the organic supplier but it is limited at the moment. I bought a peach last year and it was the size of a baseball and tasted how I remember as a kid. It was fantastic. I don't know how you get kids to eat fruit these days.

AAAAH. Glad I got that off my chest. Always wanted to rant about how good it was back in the old days.

I'm so glad you mention this. I am totally frustrated by the beautiful peaches or nectarines found at the grocery store, so I buy half a dozen, only to find out once I get them home that they are mealy or like you say "taste like nothing". Can I have a bite at the store?

The custom here is to ask for a taste of any fruit. No one would dream of taking any fruit home that they had not tried.

I wonder if the chinese supply fresh fruit rather than fridge ripened ren33?

I thought this thread was going to be about something entirely different, just shows how my mind works!

No surdoux this is an Elton John free zone.

(giggle)

Well I don't know about supermarket fruit as I dont buy it, but all I know is in the Fresh market you can taste it. They seem to have most sorts there

I agree it's about buying local. You can't breed for durability and ease of shipping, and get great taste - we really can't have it all.

Of course Ren can get better fruit than I can - think of what can be grown within a couple hundred kilometers of Hong Kong, and then about what can be grown in central Alberta. During the winter.

I think the thing to do is focus as much as possible on seasonality, and on those fruits that are suited by nature (rather than by science) to travel. Living in Canada, even if you showed me the most wonderful looking peaches for one cent a pound, I wouldn't buy them in February - the chances that they'd be edible are nil. You can sell me a banana, though.

I have found out about a farmers market held every second sunday about 10 minutes away and will give it a go. Apparently there is a farmers market network building in Australia. YAY.

By far the best fruit I've ever eaten were the peaches straight off a tree, picked first thing in the morning. I picked fruit to help pay my way through uni (college). A crisp early morning and the juiciest peaches. We were allowed to eat as many as we liked. I've never found peaches to match.

This happens to be one of my pet hates. You buy fruit in a supermarket out of season, peaches and plums are usually rock hard and go mouldy before they ever get ripe enough to eat, strawberries look lovely but have no taste at all, ditto raspberries. The melons and pineapples are usually OK, bu even they have a more watery taste to them in winter. I wonder how much money is spent each year on fruit that is just dumped in the end.

I agree. So insist on tasting before you buy and if you can't, don't buy and shops will change their tune!

In parts of the world like mine (where it is impossible to grow certain fruits to maturation and difficult to grow others), a possible solution is to freeze your crops (of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, saskatoons, rhubarb etc). They hold up surprisingly well once thawed and taste MUCH fresher than the crap we get from the grocers in February. Same thing with "exotic" fruits like pineapple, mangos, papaya. Freeze them WHILE they are "in season" in your grocery store and then you can enjoy them when they are not. There are pickling/preserving/drying options as well of course. We can grow Ure Pears here - they make for the most wonderful brandy (I like fruit in ALL forms lol)