Why Does Fruit Taste so Bland?

I remember the fruit of my childhood. My childhood was wonderful in many ways. I lived with my parents and sister in a new residential area of Adelaide, South Australia.  We moved in around the time my sister was born.  

Mum and Dad set out to create a wonderful garden – and in the front yard there were mostly trees, shrubs and flowers.  In the back yard there were fruit trees, almond trees and vegetables.  It didn’t seem to take long for them to be producing masses of produce.

Summer in particular was when we harvested the fruit.  At this time of the year (December) we would be picking apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, strawberries, and much more.  

Apricots

Apricots

My sister and I would often taste the fruit before it was ripe – seeing the colour changing as the fruit ripened was very tempting for us, and we would often have a “tummy ache” because we had indulged in not-quite-ripe fruit.

When they were ripe, the taste was delicious.

I still remember the taste of freshly ripened fruit!

In the early days we exchanged product with neighbours.  We also we spent hours and hours preserving the fruits so that for the next year we had ample supplies of jams and preserves.

Despite the hot dry weather of the Adelaide summers, we would spend hours washing the fruit, cutting it and removing the “stones”, and pushing them into jars.  My mother would do the final preparation before putting the jars in the oven in trays of water, and cooking them until ready.  Our cupboards, by the end of the season were full of jams and preserves, that mostly lasted until the following year.

Fruit in 2016 is Tasteless!!

Yesterday I bought some apricots and nectarines from the supermarket.  I only bought a couple.  I knew that I would not like them!!

Today I tasted one of the apricots.  Yuck!!  I still have vivid memories of the freshly picked fruit of my childhood.  This piece of fruit was tasteless.

I regret that my children and their children will rarely taste the freshly picked fruit.  These days massive orchards pick the fruit as it ripens.   It is packed in boxes and transported hundreds of kilometers to the market and then onto the supermarket. It arrives in the supermarket several days after picking.  Where is the taste?  I know it is not possible to grow, pick and transport the produce safely without picking it earlier.  But it is something I find hard to deal with.  I do remember the taste of freshly picked fruit.  I crave it sometimes.

But that is life in the 21st century.  Modern living.  But the fruit is not tasty.  It is so bland. So sad.

 




Share This:

About Di Hill

My business card says "Writer, Traveller, Camera Addict, Bamboo Fan, Workshop Presenter." This website will focus on my writing - and the workshops I present. Workshops on Blogging, Marketing for Writers, and Life Story Writing.
This entry was posted in Cooking, History and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.