Melons

[Russell]

We had a nice holiday in France over the summer - sadly just a memory now.  One highlight was the abundance of really fresh fruit despite it being a poor year.  There were crates of melons for instance both in the supermarkets and on market stalls.  All grown in France and ready to eat if chosen for that or would ripen in a day or two.  Full of flavour, juicy and sweet.

Back in Blighty we spotted some in the supermarket, reduced 'cos they were at their sell by date.  To say it was a disapointment is an understatement.  Even after several days it was hard and tasteless.  The biggest disapointment was that it came from Brazil!  If we had seen that we wouldn't have bought it but were seduced by it being reduced.

Why oh why when we have a near neighbour that produces such good fruit do we fly in from Brazil?  Surely a few trucks worth could be shipped in?

[hatler]

Years and years ago (pre-kids) we wandered round Ecuador and couldn't believe how wonderful (and cheap) the fruit was. Equally memorable was how poor and tasteless the fruit seemed when we got home.

I suspect that fruit suitable for transportation simply isn't as tasty.

And snap on the French melon thing. We too ate our way through a good deal of melonage.

[Ham]

I think much of it is to do with the dominance of the supermarket sourcing in the UK, there is no way for a small grower or coop to deal  with them and not enough margin or an enterprising wholesaler. Add to that the complexity of handling ripe fruit and the length of our distribution chains and you end up where we are.

Frankly I adore the differences in fresh fruit supply and, much as I would love to get stuff from %Country% in the UK, not having it in the UK retains a good chunk of the charm of travel for me; we've lost too much of countries' individual character as it is.

[ian]

The majority of fruit that turns up in our supermarket is grown for that purpose. Varieties that don't bruise, are easy to pack, and transport (often long distances). Varieties that grow out-of-season, in greenhouses etc. These are characteristics that don't over overlap with taste, hence what we get from the supermarket. It's pretty dire most of the times. I bought a punnet of British plums the other day. Utterly tasteless. A few weeks back we were Kent and stuffing ourselves direct from a tree, and there was no comparison at all. Utterly lush, aromatic and sweet.

In the last few days I've eaten those plums (tasteless), a mango (tasteless), and some strawberries (weirdly bitter).

To be honest, I can understand why a lot people don't eat much fruit, what's available is often pretty horrible.

[hellymedic]

I think ian has it; isn't there a 'Supermarket Fruit' thread somewhere?
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=99345.0
Supermarket fruit is picked under-ripe and gets neither the sun, nor the water/nutrient feed that enables local fruit to be so lush (but perishable).

We have a Bramley apple tree in the garden. Home-grown Bramleys are sweet and rosy, sometimes ripening as late as November. Supermarket Bramleys are green and can be sour...

My Mum didn't even know a ripe Bramley could be rosy till I gave her some and she's been stewing apples all my life!

[Ruthie]

Fruit in Canada is simply gorgeous.  Maybe because they have proper seasons? 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Even bananas here are a pale shadow of bananas in #banana republic. And you never see red ones here at all!

[geraldc]

The bananas here were developed at Chatsworth House before being sent out to the world to spread their banana goodness. As all bananas are clones, they might all get wiped out, and we'll be back to other banana types again.

[ian]

Even bananas here are a pale shadow of bananas in #banana republic. And you never see red ones here at all!

It's amazing to see a full selection (an entire platter of different bananas in Indonesia) but Cavendish bananas are a good example of a fruit that wasn't successful because of taste (though generally they don't take that bad) but that because they grow well in a variety of places and be transported long distance by sea. Also, they had marginally better disease resistance than other cultivars. But they're all very closely related and can only be cultivated asexually.

If you're lucky enough to live somewhere where there is a genuine farmers market in the US or Canada, there's some splendid stuff to be had. We don't generally do that in the UK and most of our growers only cater for the ubiquity of the supermarkets, so even if they do sell on a market or stall, it's just the same stuff as the supermarkets want or the stuff they won't take. The big supermarkets are horrid things.

[rafletcher]

Fruit in Canada is simply gorgeous.  Maybe because they have proper seasons?

Most comes from the Okanagan valley, which has a microclimate that suits fruit production.

[citoyen]

Why oh why when we have a near neighbour that produces such good fruit do we fly in from Brazil?  Surely a few trucks worth could be shipped in?

Maybe the French want to keep all their melons for themselves?

You can get decent ripe melons (and other exotic fruit) in the UK, but not at supermarket prices, for the reasons ian spells out.

Even native fruit is disappointing when bought from supermarkets. We buy exotic fruit because we think apples are boring, but the cox's from the tree in my garden, picked when fully ripe and eaten straight away, are sublime - as good as any French melon.

Strawberries likewise - they used to be regarded as a special treat when you could only get them for a couple of weeks every year. Now they're available all year round and only ever taste of pure disappointment. Grow your own and remind yourself why you used to love them.

[citoyen]

A few weeks back we were Kent and stuffing ourselves direct from a tree, and there was no comparison at all. Utterly lush, aromatic and sweet.

Oh yes! My mother-in-law planted a plum tree a few years ago and it has started to mature, so we had a pretty decent crop this year. They're another fruit that I'd forgotten just how good they can be.

[ian]

Plums are one of those fruit that are amazing 'wild' (they're mostly garden escapes or crosses) but guaranteed disappointment when bought. One of the best things about late summer walks in the country is the fact you can stumble across a plum tree and simply gorge yourself on something that tastes like it might have dropped directly from Heaven. I know of a mirabelle tree that is without compare in the realms of entire human existence. I'm not telling anyone where it is on account that it's all mine.

I scrump plums and apples from our next door neighbour. We've planted a plum tree but it'll be a few years before it sets fruit.

[hellymedic]

A mirabelle tree graces my garden too. It was sadly unproductive this year and my Victoria plum tree is sick. The few plums we ate were nice and the moth larvae are less apparent late in the season.

There are mirabelles in Hyde Park in that London...