To think the fruit & veg we buy, is bland?

[SukiTheDog]

I bought some Cox’s apples yesterday at a well known supermarket. Although I eat plenty of fruit, I’m not keen on apples but Cox’s were always a firm favourite of mine. We used to live close to an orchard and they were wonderful apples, if a little misshapen at times. I’ve just washed them and had one. It tasted of .... nothing. No sweetness, no flavour. Nowt. Apart from the texture, I could have been eating any of the tasteless varieties of apple, filling our shelves now.

What’s happening to our food, seriously? It’s all so bland and nondescript. I think tomatoes have gone the same way. They look like a tomato and feel like a tomato but frankly, there’s no tomato-iness anymore. You need a ton of salt on it to have it taste of anything?

What’s going on?

Organic makes a difference, tomatoes especially. The regular supermarket ones are really tasteless.

We have a nearby farm shop that sells a lot of local produce. Much much tastier but more expensive.

Homegrown stuff tastes the best though. I grow expensive stuff in the main; soft fruit and posh veggies. One year I grew about 50 onions, just for a change. My God, how good is a home grown onion! And I dried them off in the sun and plaited them into strings and they kept beautifully for the couple of months it took to get through them. I mean you would think an onion is an onion is an onion, but no.

Local fruit and veg on holiday in a warm country is one of life's real pleasures.

I think another factor is the soil where things are intensively farmed. I was reading that fruit and veg is now much less nutritious than in the past because there are less and less nutrients left in the soil for successive crops. That had to affect taste.

I'm not sure what can be done about it while still making enough food for everyone, though. On a personal level I'd love to have growing space, but no allotments here and can't afford much of a garden.

Would people be willing to actually eat seasonally though?
In the case of brexit making imports of fruit and veg from the EU harder I can see 2 things happening.

1. People learn to eat seasonally again.*
2. The uk just buys it from the USA. The bleached AND crap version!

*the issue I can see with this is so many farmers of all kinds are closing down at a rate of knots due to working at a loss for a good few years now... does the U.K Even produce enough to come close to meeting its own needs when it comes to fruit and veg?? Second issue is, are people willing to eat seasonally? Particularly in the winter where the reliance is heavily on (iirc, I've been abroad for a while now) leeks, greens, root veg and so on? While you can't bitch and whinge that strawberries taste like crap in January - particularly if they were picked 6 months ago (which they probably were) I'm not sure many would be willing to actually adjust.

I genuinely worry the uk would see a lot of people getting quite unhealthy because they just don't know how to cook based on seasons. Particularly the younger generation. I don't mean to sound like a patronising dickhead but I struggled with the concept when I moved overseas as did many British expats I know. We were used to having whatever we wanted whenever we wanted with little in the way of price changes but here mangoes can be anywhere from 40c to $4 each. Pineapples from 80c to $5 each. Carrots can be $1 for 2.5 kilos or $1.50 for 1 kilo. Strawberries anywhere from $1.99 for half a kilo to $6.99 for the same amount. I've mentioned this before but I'm still shocked that I got charged $10 for 2 skinny and small chillis, but it's my fault as I threw them in without thinking...

I'm not sure if people would adjust or whether the USA would sweep in and "save" the day with some canned and/or chlorinated veg.

I'm growing our own this year. Mostly.

I agree with Merryshitmas I don’t think the public generally want to eat truely seasonally. We get a veg box and it’s pretty much potatoes carrots and onions through the winter. If the weathers bad it’s covered in mud.

There are plenty of other seasonal veg you could have during winter including salad leaves.

Riverford fruit and veggies are really lovely and use so so so much less packaging than the supermarket

As bilbodog said about fridges.
Fruit, including tomatoes, cougettes and peppers, is best kept in fruit bowls. Bananas go on a banana tree. Veg goes in veg rack. Salads in fridge.
Grow your own if you can. Lots of stuff will grow ok in containers. Eat seasonal.
Home grown, where you pick stuff just before you cook/eat it tastes so much better.
Many fruit and veg are very easy to grow.

If you’ve got any space at all grow some of your own. Herbs and salad are easy, quickly pay for themselves and are so much better than the stuff in bags at supermarkets. A window edge will do.

Fruit and veg abroad does taste better...peaches in France....

Home grown definitely taste better and so fresh. I love the strange shapes. However, you do have to have a water source. Also have to take into account, not everything that was planted grows to its full potential due to disease and animals

If you have a tiny patch of ground you can grow some things for yourself (eg climbing beans). No ground but a window sill then grow some of your own herbs.

Even with a massive allotment we have still not been able to achieve full self sufficiency. But we are now self sufficient in certain things such as soft fruit and cut flowers. The home grown fruit is so much better than out of season supermarket stuff that we just use what we grow and manage without the rest of the time.

Home grown means we eat when perfectly ripe not when picked to ripen later.

I live in Belgium where they consider the potato to be king, and sell them as waxy, floury, small, for frites, steaming, mash etc. However, I schlep to the British store to buy baking potatoes and King Eds, or reds because the UK spuds are different varieties, and I can get new potatoes there. Belgian potatoes are bland and are all, apart from some bags of Rattes, Nicolas.

When I first moved here I was told that the supermarket fruit and veg weren't good and went off quickly because they were Class 2 veg. All the Class 1 was exported to the UK.

I work in Manchester City centre and I pop to an outdoor fruit stall once a week, to buy my fruit and veg. It tastes lovely and is half the price. I was sick of buying supermarket produce which was either tasteless or went off within a few days.

The difference between supermarket and home grown is a lot to do with variety. Supermarket varieties are grown to sell (store well, look good). Home grown varieties are grown for flavour.

Not all strawberries (or any other fruit & veg) are equal!

I got so fed up with this, I learnt to grow & freeze my own. E.g. 6 French bean plants will produce enough for 2 people for a year. Takes about an hour in April to plant up. Then pick when small & eat, or slice, dip in boiling water and freeze. They taste really fresh even after 8 months in my freezer.
I grow beans, tomatoes, chillies, artichokes, raspberries, herbs, rhubarb, radishes and salad leaves each summer which takes ground about the size of a parking space. 10 mins watering them each evening, while drinking a glass of wine is really good for stress too.

I read somewhere before that food from Asian and Polish supermarkets is much fresher and loads tastier as its imported pretty much immediately

I buy all my fruit & veg from the local Asian supermarket & the difference is massive - in look, taste, and amounts of packaging!

Agree with other posters re M&S been the best for fruit. We tend to get all of ours there but not cheap.

I’ve spent a lot of time in France & the quality of their f&v tends to be a lot better (not the grapes or apples) but they cost more.

EmpressOfJurisfiction

How long does it last?

I had some strawberries earlier in the week. Now admittedly I don't know when strawberries are at their best but they really do not taste like strawberries I had when I was little. Very bland.

YANBU. We started getting a veg box from riverford before Christmas and I don't think I can go back. The taste is SOOOO much better and the veg lasts all week or longer. Plus! No
Wasteful packaging. I still get most of our fruit at the supermarket which I find ok but definitely try an organic veg box delivery. You won't regret it! We also eat more veg :)

Just to add to my post. We have a greengrocer and the quality is good but I actually prefer my riverford box as my greengrocer veg is similarly priced and not organic. Riverford is also franchised so you are still supporting local :)

Dboo, strawberries are seasonal in May- July. Think Wimbledon! There are some Brit strawberries in the shops but they're grown in greenhouses without sunshine so little flavour and too watery.

AHH that helps. I did wonder if they vary on where you got them as I had a brownie in a cafe last weekend with a strawberry alongside it and that definitely tasted more like the strawberries of days gone by.