On Sun, 12 Oct 2014 14:02:08 +0100, Janet > wrote:
>In article >,
>says...
>>
>> Fresh is always better, but the stored are not so bad. Properly kept,
>> the can rate an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale.
>
> Or not; and those who never tasted fresh will never know the
>difference.
True. You don't get that beautiful and delicate fragrance and flavour
with anything but fresh apples - some varieties are a lot better than
others in that regard too. If someone hasn't experienced that, then
they wouldn't know what I'm talking about.
> My farm neighbout in Scotland married a girl from New Zealand. Her
>parents are major apple growers in NZ. When her mother visited Scotland
>she went round all the big supermarkets looking for her products, only
>to find them on sale under-ripe, not at their best. She was mortified.
> For the export market, they pick apples under-ripe to be ripened during
>transit and controlled storage. The UK end of the importers were instead
>passing the fruit straight to supermarket distribution centres.
>
> When we stayed in NZ I wanted to test this out for myself and she
>was right. We could not believe the difference in flavour and juiciness
>of the NZ apple varieties we bought and ate there, compared with the
>same varieties of imported NZ apples we buy and eat at home in Scotland.
>NZ running with juice, flavour packed kiwi fruit, sold from the vine/
>farm in NZ, are barely recognisable as the same NX kiwi fruit we buy
>imported to the UK.
>
> In the same way, Scottish strawberries/raspberries are picked under-
>ripe for export (so they travel better). If you happen to live near the
>growers you can eat the real thing picked at perfection, and you won't
>be interested in eating winter imports from Spain, tasteless as
>cardboard.
>
> Many Brits have never picked a perfectly ripe fresh orange straight
>from the tree (or a pineapple, avocado, banana) and sadly an ever
>decreasing number have never picked a perfect British apple pear or plum
>straight from a tree either. Those who don't know any better than
>imported assume the second rate is as good as it gets.
Its sad how compromised a lot of 'fresh' food is.