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[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Appraising Taste of Various Fruit Cultivars

 

One thing I love about the world of home orchard fresh fruit fans is that there is no professional hierarchy of taste makers.  No Fruit Spectator magazine to tell the eager masses what varieties are a "Best Buy" offering the taste of a $4 a pound Flavor Grenade pluot at a $2 a pound Santa Rosa price.

 

In the on-line debates about relative flavor of different varieties, everyone has their opinion and none are more truly valid than another.  There may be no one on this site who has more experience appraising apple varieties than Ed Fackler.  For years people begged him to make a list of his favorite apples before he reluctantly did so.  To me, the most memorable description he gave was of the Goldrush apple- "battery acid off the tree---heavenly at Christmas and keeps through May if stored in plastic".

 

What is interesting to me about this is I completely agree with the second part of this description, but "battery acid off the tree"?  Not in my mouth!   The Goldrush I pick off my trees starts as a very good tart- not exceptionally acidic at all.  I still love Ed's description- at least he still endorses one of my favorites and the part I disagree with is so dramatic!

 

People tend to think that THEIR Goldrush apple is THE Goldrush apple.  It is different things to different people and the variables start with taste buds but goes way beyond that. 

 

When Genda tells of the obvious superiority of Fall Red raspberry over Heritage a lot of factors may be in play.  Her sites climate and soil will affect the quality of the fruit.  How she manages her plants- are they diligently watered- sprinkler or drip, does she mulch (with what, how deep?) 

 

Various cultivars will be affected in contrasting ways by differences in precipitation, relative cloud cover, daytime and or night time temperatures at different parts of the growing season.  With raspberries as well as other fruit, being close to the coast as opposed to a few miles inland makes a huge difference.  Even whether Genda has other ripe fruit on her site that she is successfully harvesting may play a role in her assessment.  If raspberries are all she's having success with, relative differences in quality would likely be amplified.

 

Because of the differences in weather from season to season and its affect on fruit quality, some experienced growers are reluctant to validate a variety with a thumbs up before they've grown it for at least a decade.  (If I fall in love with a piece of fruit, I just can't wait that long.)  West coast growers don't tend to get as much contrast season to season so their reliable evaluations can be made sooner.

 

But nothing seems to stimulate more response on a fruit grower's web site than the "battle of the cultivars"  debates- especially in the winter, when these discussions help us to imagine once again harvesting the luscious fruit off the plants after being deprived for months.  Here's to that!