PDA

View Full Version : Peaches...



joe yang
15th April 2003, 02:52
They're back in the stores, in season. And here in the US, they suck. Also good plums are hard to find. Pears aren't much better. Everything is hard and tastelss. For that matter, apples haven't improved all that much. Finally, tomatoes are coming out of the dark ages.

We all know it's about shipping and shelf life and eye appeal. Mom and pop orchards and local fruit are disappearing here on the east coast. How is it elsewhere? Bet you have decent fruit in Japan?



Wah, wah, wah. Thanks, I feel better now!

Joseph Svinth
15th April 2003, 03:45
The Japanese pay a lot more for the top end fruit. You see the same thing in lumber.

As a rule, you get what you pay for, and in America, most folks buy the cheapest stuff they can find.

PHILBERT
15th April 2003, 03:50
The apples in my area aren't lasting long. Went to the grocery store the other day and most of them were coming to the end of there shelf life as it was, took a few minutes to find a few good ones when a month or 2 ago I was having no problem.

Same with banannas. I like mine to be so freaking fresh they are green and a pain in the neck to peel open. Most of them are turning pale yellow now.

I saw some plums recently, nice ones too however last few times I've been to the store they were out. Plums are indeed the one I spend the most time on. An apple I can look at from 3 feet away and tell if it is a keeper. A bananna, 20 feet. A plum I gotta inspect super closely.

David T Anderson
15th April 2003, 05:04
Hmmm...most everything we have here is good...I get bananas green too, so they last longer. Peaches and nectarines were good until recently...the wife eats those mainly. We had lots of good, huge strawberries just last week...

I think perhaps that we are seeing the end of last year's fruit...the new season won't be here for a few months yet, aside from hothouse stuff like the strawbs....

MarieB
15th April 2003, 06:51
i cant wait until watermelon comes out :)

Cody
15th April 2003, 08:13
I usually shop at China Town, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than anywhere else, at least for fruit. But even so, the price for fruit has gone up quite a bit for the last couple of weeks.

The oranges are still good, but they are getting more and more expensive. The same goes for pineapples. The price of pineapple has doubled in 4 months! (I was told the enzymes in pineapples help discoloration of bruises, anybody heard about that one?) Banana is probably the only thing that stays same price.

We got some strawberries here too. Kind of expensive still, and it's still kind of sour.

The only real bonus are the mangoes - 64cents a piece, ripe and sweet! But they turn bad in 2 days...

I even got 2 star fruit a couple of weeks ago, but it's still sitting in my fridge... what are you supposed to do with those things?

-Cody

renfield_kuroda
15th April 2003, 13:29
I live in Tokyo, right smack in the middle of the sprawl.
I recently went grocery shopping:
5 small kiwi fruits: 580 yen
1 bunch of bananas (about 8): 580 yen
1 lemon: 380 yen
small basket of strawberries (10 or so): 680 yen

Don't forget the 10,000yen melons, the fact that everything is sold perfectly ripened, the tonnage of chemicals sprayed on everything...

So, North Americans: no whining about fruit!

Regards,
renfield kuroda

P.S. current FX 120yen/1USD

sean_stonehart
15th April 2003, 16:32
Joe... I'm not sure where you get your peaches from but here in Ga (The Peach State), they're not in season. Hell I don't recall seeing any fruit on the trees yet, only blooms. In early May, the early peaches are called "May Peaches" for obvious reasons & they about like you described them. Later in May, they've ripened properly & yummy!!!!

Shitoryu Dude
15th April 2003, 20:27
Good produce in the US is very hard to find - it all gets picked green and trucked in from California (if you are lucky) or perhaps Mexico or Chile. I try to find it from local sources when it is season or grow my own. We have a few hothouses locally that turn out good tomatoes year-round, but that's it.

My own specialty is turning the yearly roadside crops of blackberries and raspberries into homemade jam. Better than anything you'll ever buy in the store, I only use fruit, sugar, pectin and lemon juice to churn the stuff out by the gallon every August. I never worry about getting rid of such huge quantities of jam - I can barely keep any in stock as friends and relatives beg it off of me.

:beer:

joe yang
15th April 2003, 20:45
We have a grocery chain here, Wegman's, they get fresh produce from all over the world. It seems like something is always in season somewhere. For really good fruit though, we have to wait for local stuff at farmer's market and it's getting rarer. Hey Sean, ever eat a paw paw? When the local peaches do arrive, I usually buy up all I can get, just as it starts to go bad, for home made wine. Oh and there is Yaohan or whatever it is called now, a Japanese supermarket here, for $100 mellons and stuff.

joe yang
16th April 2003, 00:35
We all knew you had a warm, fuzzy side. :D

MarieB
16th April 2003, 01:05
Originally posted by Shitoryu Dude
We have a few hothouses locally that turn out good tomatoes year-round, but that's it.

we used to grow tomatoes at our old house :)

sean_stonehart
16th April 2003, 02:04
Joe... never knowingly had a paw paw. Does it have another name? If not, describe it please. I may have & just not known it...

joe yang
16th April 2003, 03:40
I only ever had them on two occasions. For a couple of years, there was an old "dutch" farmer who used to show up at market with them in the fall. They are green, kind of mango shaped. The flesh inside is yellow/white and kind of custardy. They have a unique flavor. I can't begin to describe it. They are good, too. I'd love to have one again. I don't even know what it grows on or where. I think it grows in southern PA and further south. I do remember just a snatch of a rhyme, "way down yonder in the paw paw patch", we used to jump rope to it as kids.

joe yang
16th April 2003, 03:44
Doh! Sorry, just had a Homer moment and realized I could do a search. I found a link but I can't make it work. Double doh. :rolleyes:

http://www.fred.net/kathy/pawpaws.html (http://)

sean_stonehart
16th April 2003, 12:52
The link worked ok... I just copied & pasted... :D

Paw paw pages (http://www.fred.net/kathy/pawpaws.html)

I can say without a doubt I've never had one. I've heard of them in the ryhme like you, but that's it.

Growing up as a kid in south Ga, we had plums, peaches, pears, melons, blackberrys, cherries, apples & honeysuckle blossoms. One of my greatuncles ran packing shed & from him we got nectarines, tangerines, tangelos, strawberries, etc... but there were no paw paws. They looked & sounded kinda good. I may have to try to hunt some up down here & see.

joe yang
16th April 2003, 18:25
I gather from reading up they are scarce because they occupy such a narrow niche. I thought our winters here where too rough, actually they need cold winters. The young plants need indirect sunlight, the mature plants need full light. Sounds like a border zone plant that thrives between the warring birch, maple cycle. I've never seen any in the wild. Bet the Native Americans knew how to "cultivate" them. They really are good, wonder where the old farmer got them? I might try some abandoned orchards I know.

samuel-t
24th April 2003, 12:31
Originally posted by sean_stonehart
Joe... never knowingly had a paw paw. Does it have another name? If not, describe it please. I may have & just not known it...

It is also called papaya. You can find images and stuff at http://www.2747.com/2747/food/papaya/. It's a really nice fruit. :)

/Samuel

Kashiwa-Madake
29th April 2003, 00:31
Down here in Texas, Papaya and Mango are about it for us. We have a very short Watermelon season. Most of the suckers tend to be dry dry dry and more seeds than you can deal with. Bananas tend to stay in season here almost non stop and stay the same in price. Berries tend to be too expense to even fathom about purchasing. Sometimes at a local Fruit and Vegetable Market, Irving's Farmers Market, we can get decent prices on Strawberries. As a kid, my parents would bring one of the old radio flyers and fill up on fruit and vegetables.
Do most of you have a decent size farmers market near where you all live? That seems to be the best place to go shopping around here. Although we have Asian Market Stores popping up all over the place. A few near us have better prices on fruit (and better appeal, taste) than most of our Chain Stores, ie Kroger and ALbertsons.

MarieB
29th April 2003, 04:05
we have a local vegetable and fruit stand that sits adjacent to a field, where customers can buy everything recently grown and fresh. they make the stand seasonal- during halloween you can buy pumpkins just chopped off from the ground.

for freshness, you cant get much better than that :p

Margaret Lo
7th May 2003, 21:36
is fresh corn. The newer hybrids are supersweet and have a fresh just out of green silk scent. Just 8 weeks away. My cat loves fresh corn and will eat it lying down on my lap no wonder he weighs 20 lbs.

M