What happened to some of the old varieties of fruits and veggies that actually tasted like somethin

[Ruth n Jersey]

It is that time of year when I crave a really nice sweet piece of watermelon. All I see are the seedless varieties. They don't compare in flavor to the old varieties that had the big black seeds. Heaven forbid you should ask them to plug it for you. The smaller baby melons aren't to bad but still not the same. Next are the grapes. They use to sell little green grapes, I think they were Thompson grapes. Now they sell grapes the size of plums and tasteless. In the fall I look for Greening apples to make my apple pie. They replaced them with Granny Smith. Not bad but I want my Greenings. Now I move on to the onions. Yes, we have Walla Walla and Vidalia but I want the Bermuda onion from the 50's. I can't think of the name but you could eat it like an apple. Corn is another one, The Silver Queen white corn that they rave about is overly sweet in my book. My Grandfather always grew Country Gentlemen corn. When you ate that you knew you were eating corn. I wonder if it really was better as my memory leads me to believe? For some reason I think it was.

 

[Don M.]

I hear ya. It seems that so many of the "fresh" fruits and vegetable sold in the grocery stores taste like they were picked weeks ago...and they probably were. That's one reason why I like to have a garden every Summer. Our climate is not suited for many of the fruits/vegetables, but what I do get from the garden is SO much tastier than the store equivalent. The grape tomatoes are full of buds, the green beans are beginning to form, and I always look forward to the cantaloupes getting ripe...I can make a meal out of one of those on a hot summer day.

 

[Guitarist]

Prince Charles has an interesting chapter on it in his most recent book, Harmony. Apparently the thing nowadays is to raise a lot of food for a lot of people all over the world, and ship it all over the world, instead of growing it locally for local markets. Genetically modified fruits and vegetables with no seeds means that farmers cannot plant new crops from their current crops' seeds, but have to go buy new seed. The idea is to grow the most, for the most people, for the least cost and trouble, with no interest in soil quality, taste, or quality, or local economies. I heard it called Frankenfood on Jeopardy the other night.

It's like the roses and other flowers you see in the grocery store or that come from 800-florists. No fragrance. I was amazed when I walked into Trader Joe's last week to actually smell their fresh flowers!

 

[Butterfly]

It is that time of year when I crave a really nice sweet piece of watermelon. All I see are the seedless varieties. They don't compare in flavor to the old varieties that had the big black seeds. Heaven forbid you should ask them to plug it for you. The smaller baby melons aren't to bad but still not the same. Next are the grapes. They use to sell little green grapes, I think they were Thompson grapes. Now they sell grapes the size of plums and tasteless. In the fall I look for Greening apples to make my apple pie. They replaced them with Granny Smith. Not bad but I want my Greenings. Now I move on to the onions. Yes, we have Walla Walla and Vidalia but I want the Bermuda onion from the 50's. I can't think of the name but you could eat it like an apple. Corn is another one, The Silver Queen white corn that they rave about is overly sweet in my book. My Grandfather always grew Country Gentlemen corn. When you ate that you knew you were eating corn. I wonder if it really was better as my memory leads me to believe? For some reason I think it was.

I sure do agree about the watermelons. They do NOT taste the same as the watermelons of my youth. Don't care much for that white corn either. Or cardboard peaches.

 

[Capt Lightning]

This is one of the reasons that we grow our own vegetables. The tomatoes, carrots, celery, cauliflower etc... that you buy in supermarkets here are all pretty tasteless. We have friends in the village who own a market garden . We help then in return for fresh vegetables and eggs (when the hens are laying). It's great to have somehing you can taste.

The point has been made that vegetables can be bought all year round now. It doesn't matter that they've been flown halfway across the world. If you want strawberries at Christmas, the stores will have them. They wont have any taste, but you can still have them. Maybe it's time to get back to understanding what 'seasonal' means.

 

[tnthomas]

A lot of 'regular' produce(as opposed to "organic") is genetically modified, to(for example) be more drought resistant, or pest resistant.

I have noticed that tomatoes have less taste, but more water content; red and white onions are enormous, 3+ times larger than the "organic" variety...which resembles what used to be 'normal'.

In the stores I shop organic produce is usually 2 or 3 times more expensive than not-organic.

 

[Debby]

A lot of 'regular' produce(as opposed to "organic") is genetically modified, to(for example) be more drought resistant, or pest resistant.

I have noticed that tomatoes have less taste, but more water content; red and white onions are enormous, 3+ times larger than the "organic" variety...which resembles what used to be 'normal'.

In the stores I shop organic produce is usually 2 or 3 times more expensive than not-organic.

I think you might have a good point there Thomas. I bought some organic tomatoes last week and I could actually smell them just by handling them! The taste was also better than the other ones that I usually buy so I think from now on, if I need tomatoes for a recipe I'm going to spring for the organic.