North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

Lon wrote:
"A friend who visited Italy told me that all the apples he tried there
would be considered over ripe and mealy by our standards."

    Huh, they must be making up for the horrible green shiny Golden
Delicious apples from France that used to be sold in England when I lived
there 25 years ago.  They were watery and tasteless, hard to do with a
variety that good, but they picked them really green.  Fortunately England
had so many excellent apples to choose from back then, I was always baffled
why anyone would buy the French ones.  And the pears, oh my, Conference
pears, heaven on earth.  I have never heard of them for sale in this
country, and I am sure Tennessee would kill the trees in no time unless
someone comes up with a cure for Fireblight.
    Someone told me years ago that all the meat in Italy was tough, because
they waited till the animals were on their last legs to kill them.  Actually
I know now what he was talking about, because if you have an animal to make
eggs or milk or offspring, you do wait till it's past it's prine for it's
final use.  Though the meat is tough, it has a great deal of flavor for
soups and stews.  Grocery veggies and the fruit are tasteless to me because
I'm used to the good stuff, and due to friend's beefalo and our old hens and
surplus roosters, the grocery meat has lost it's flavor too.    Donna