I thought I was done with my food rants but the American Farming industry said hold my beer!
One of the few pleasures of summer is fruit. If I must put up with the bugs and heat then at least I can eat some watermelon or peaches or plums! But no. The Fruit growers rather make huge soft ball size peaches, baseball size plums, and seedless watermelons. Since selecting fruit is a real crap shoot and the best we can do is by scent and looks. Watermelons no longer have that assurance of the ground spot and a thump.
I hate to throw out a half eaten peach but when it is mealy and mushing in the mouth and the flavor is nonexistent eating it is loathsome… the plums are huge and as tasteless maybe a pop of sour….texture again is mealy mush…..Now these are not cheap fruits, nearly $4 a pound, these are not in the bargain bin either -no store here would dream of cutting the price of an older batch of fruits.
No these fruits are new… bred to be beautiful, big, and easy to transport; however, they sacrifice flavor and texture. They only reason for a fruit is flavor and texture. My melon was a splurge at $5 for a smallish, foot ball size (soccer). The center was already mushy….I was so disappointed and that was the last melon I bought. I who used to gage summer by how many melons I ate….
I know we are in the middle of nowhere and at the farthest reach of the east in the US…but still. I get nice flavorful fruits across the boarder in Canada from all over the world and from inside Canada. I just can’t bring them across the border.
Cherries and grapes seem to the the only fruit not hurt badly by the new and improved looks department. But the American food growing industry is a sorry state of capitalism greed…bigger is not better. Many people have no clue and do not care how poorly the fruit industry is now…yes they produce more, bigger, but hardly edible to a person who once judged fruit by taste. It has been a dismal summer and now I am hoping I can find decent apples ( also ruined by the corporate greed)
