I’m old enough to remember how better tasting fruits were when I was a kid. I even remember picking fruit off the trees and bushes… ones that actually “riped on the vine.” I don’t mean to reminisce like an old man here, but the disappointment of biting into a big, beautiful, juicy-looking nectarine only to find out it tastes like mashed paper is too great. So, we get sugary fruits that were green on “the vine” and are very low in nutrition. The only fruits that taste reasonable these days are the organic ones. I’m not saying anything about the validity of organic food that some argue about, but they simply taste better… and of course are more expensive.
California is pushing for 6 fruits a day, while here in the UK they push for 5. Probably should double that in order to get the equivalent of 20-30 years ago (but then you also double the sugar so maybe this isn’t such a great idea.) There is no surprise why people are encouraged to take vitamin supplements.
I’m thankful for my parents that always had tons of fruit available when I was growing up, even when times were hard; the fruit bowls are still full at my parents’ place. We don’t see that anymore… people feast on junk and don’t value the benefit of eating fresh unprocessed vegetables and fruit.
I’m not sure what organic fruit you’ve been eating, but the organic fruit I’ve tried at Sainsbury’s certainly does not taste better. The fruit is just smaller and more beat up looking because they don’t use chemical pesticides. I think the point is that local fruit surely does taste better, for the vine-ripening reasons you mentioned. But if the organic fruit still comes from somewhere far away (as it certainly does if it’s destined for the UK in the winter), it’s not going to taste any better.
In the UK (Sainsbury’s), I only had organic bananas and they most definitely taste better than the regular ones (they are smaller, yes.) In the US, most organic fruits tasted better for me (from Whole Foods or TJ’s, perhaps not as much from Safeway)… especially oranges. It’s true, they all look beaten up though :). I also shopped sometimes at more local markets (like NewLeaf in the Santa Cruz) where produce was organic and mostly local… but the premium was high.
I’m with you on the organic and I also agree about the local. And eating in season is a good idea. Do I ever miss Whole Foods! There are good “whole foods” stores up here, but for consistency and variety, you can’t beat Whole Foods. Before I moved, I even called their corporate offices and said that Southern Oregon was crying out for a Whole Foods.
But I can’t really complain too much – the stores and the produce around here are pretty good. There are lots of small organic farms and this is the apple and pear capital of the west. And local orchards have open to the public peach pickin’ days during the season. We’ll see this summer about the queen of all – nectarines.
Closest TJs is about 100 miles away. I will make a pilgrimage this spring. People around here call around and say “I’m going to Eugene (the city) need anything from TJs?” I also called them before I left LG and gave them the same speech I gave to Whole Foods. Rumor has it they are headed this way.
here in germany organic (or bio as they call it) tastes much, much worse, not to mention the looks.
we made a test for a while in the family and we had to stop in the middle (we tried 3 different shops).
The only reason we visit organic stores today is for buying exotic flour for my special bread (I suffer from a gluten alergy).
N.
Eating fruit directly from the tree is always better, like eating sushi immidiatly when you fish it will taste much better than after sitting in the fridge for hours (or days)! I assume (never compared) that this is true for non-organic fruits too. One of the big issues is the time from harvest to the table, in order for the fruits to get to the customer colored and shiny they have to pick them up at the ‘green’ stage and let them mature off the tree!
I’m not sure about “ripened on the vine” or “organic” fruits, but here in the valley we have “genetically modified” fruits. They’re generally hard to eat because they’re typically 6ft in diameter, but they make great furniture.