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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Fruit tasting (process)

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  • From: Spidra Webster <spidra@speakeasy.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fruit tasting (process)
  • Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 17:46:48 -0800


On Jan 22, 2006, at 5:11 PM, Rodney wrote:

While I agree that grocery store fruit doesn't have the flavor of fruit
picked at it's peak, I would prefer it still be tasted every year to
continually make "the point" rather than letting the data get stale.

It's funny but I needed a reminder and got one yesterday. While it has been abundantly clear to me that supermarket strawberries, apples and tomatoes are awful, I hadn't thought the citrus was that bad. I've gotten less excited about citrus and winter feels awfully bleak with only apples and oranges commonly available in stores (for low cost, that is). I'm not a fan of red apples and have only recently discovered heirloom apples (and where my beloved Newton Pippin apples have been hiding all these years). At the Golden Gate Chapter CRFG Scion Exchange yesterday, someone brought Moro blood oranges and Washington navel oranges. The Moros were beautiful looking and tasted good. But the Washington Navels were out of this world! I'm a fan of tart fruit, but initially these navels were even a bit too tart for me. Then the full taste came through and I went back for more. Again and again. God, they were wonderful. And it made me realize that supermarket citrus has been almost as bad as supermarket apples. I had forgotten what real citrus tastes like.



Are there other fruit tasters out there make a serious attempt to rate
fruits by taste, appearance, etc.?

I love the Dave Wilson tasting statistics and have referred to them quite a bit when trying to select varieties to plant. However, the question of "beauty being in the eye of the beholder" comes up. I like fruit with high acid in most cases. It seems like the mainstream likes sweet sweet sweet. So when a panel rates a particular cultivar as having the best taste, what does that mean? What is being held up as the Platonic ideal of a peach, an apple, an apricot? I wish the taste charts had Brix measures on them.

We had a loquat tasting at a CRFG meeting last year. A number of what were brought were seedling loquats so it was hard to pursue them if you decided you wanted to graft. I'm still trying to track down one that a member brought. She hasn't attended any of the subsequent meetings I've been at. But the tasting was a fun idea and I think we should do more of them. But have some qualifications about what particular tasters think is the ideal taste for that fruit.



P.S. I rarely buy store nectarines because most of the ones I come across
aren't as tasty to me as peaches. Is that common?

For the last several years I've found that store nectarines are a better bet than peaches. But the last season or so nectarines have seemed just as bad. I hardly got a good peach this summer but I think it might be due to the fact that I wasn't getting out to the Farmer's Market or gourmet stores enough. Froghollow Farms' O'Henry peach was the best I tasted this summer.


Berkeley, CA

Spidra Webster
http://www.spidra.com





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