On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 22:34:34 -0400, "Jean B." > wrote:

>sd wrote:
>
>> In article >,
>> (Alex Rast) wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Grapes. No grapes today are worth even looking at. The invention of
>>>seedless grapes is the worst violence ever inflicted upon an innocent
>>>fruit. And they've shoved out of even local farmers' markets the really
>>>good grapes. Everything you find are large, insipid waterbags.
>>
>>
and apples and kiwifruit.

There's a fairly recent variety of apple in NZ, called Pacific Rose.
It's rosy, and very crisp and fresh tasting, but it has no flavour.
The producers go for looks, rather than taste. And another thing that
bugs me is new season apples are put into storage for next year, while
we have to make do in shops with last season's cold storage apples.
The best are exported, unless you buy from the growers' door.

Don't get me on the subject of exports. Where the best of our produce
is exported and not available to locals!

As for kiwifruit, which Americans call kiwis, NZ made a fatal mistake
when we did not protect the copyright to the fruit so that now it's
grown in many places. So now the industry has developed a new variety
called Gold, a yellow kiwifruit that is a protected brand. They're
trying to plug it as a better fruit but to my taste it isn't. It's
too sweet. I like the tarter green fruit. However, Americans seem to
like a sweeter taste, from what I've seen, so maybe you will like
Gold.