North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jay Cutts <orders@cuttsreviews.com>]

Actually I have been able to eat a quince raw after leaving out at room 
temperature for many days.  It begins to soften and ripen.  It's not 
juicy but it does become tasty.  And they smell great as they are 
ripening.  I sometimes buy one in the fall and just leave it on my 
pillow for a month or two because it smells so nice.  Of course, in NM 
were dry enough that fruits that are left out don't rot.

I think the issue is not eating them raw but eating them unripe.  Aren't 
fruits, by their nature, designed to attract animals to eat them to 
disburse the seeds?  That means they are going to be edible to some 
animal but not until the seeds are mature enough to be disbursed, hence 
an unripe period in which the fruit will not taste good.

This is different from tubers, like potatoes, which are inherently 
designed for energy storage for the next year's growth.  It's only 
incidental that some animals have become adapted for eating them.  Even 
when a bear digs up a tuber, it may leave it in a pile of dirt for a day 
or two and then come back for it, after which time the complex starches 
have begun to break down into simpler sugars, making it more digestible.

Best,

Jay

Jay Cutts
Cutts Graduate Reviews
800-353-4898 day or eve, 7 days
(In NM, 505-281-0684)




Kieran &/or Donna wrote:
> People who've grown up with persimmons don't eat them underripe.  
> Likewise people who've grown up with black currants don't eat them 
> raw.  Ditto for potatoes.  I've tried and tried to come up with a 
> familiar parallel, but we seem to all have this idea that if it's 
> fruit, it must be good to just pick it and eat it.  Quinces are not 
> for eating raw, but Americans aren't very familiar with them either.  
> Any other, preferably familiar, fruits that have to be cooked to 
> enjoy?   Donna
>  
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