Foods that suck due to year-round commerce

[Tab]

Being in my mid-40s, I remember "real" foods (and a lot of junk too), that you just can't buy in the store anymore. The insistence on being able to buy certain foods year-round have rendered many of my favorites tasteless. If you have any, add them to this list.

To start:

Tomatoes (everyone's complain, although UgliRipe is actually near to what I remember)
Strawberries (it's almost like, why bother)
Watermelon (incredibly sweet and juicy then, only the seeded is remotely close, and you can't even buy that anymore - just seedless. There used to be nothing better than watermelon on a hot summer's day - now I'd be happy having a juice pop instead).

Thankfully the blueberries I get are somewhat seasonal and decent.

Watermelon and strawberries, though - may they R.I.P.

[MountainLaurel]

1. Cucumbers

At the stores, they are usually hard, tasteless, and covered with wax.

[Warpy]

3. The waxy ones are vile

but you can still get Gherkins toward the mid to end summer. They're put out for picklers but they still taste like cukes and don't have that foul wax all over them. Another alternative, although not as flavorful in cucumber sannies are the European cukes that have the plastic wrapper instead of wax. The latter are pricey, though. I mainly use them in cucumbers with sour cream, something those waxed jobs are just too pumped full of water and and too tasteless to use.

Anybody who's grown backyard broccoli, green peas and sweet corn will add them to the list, too.

[MountainLaurel]

4. We often splurge on the European ones

For cucumber sandwiches. But even those do not stand up to the ones we used to get from my grandmother's garden served with a little salt sprinkled on top.

[grasswire]

6. the variety you want is called "Kirby"...

....and should be available in the summer most anywhere. They are sometimes called "pickling" cukes, too. I hear that Asian markets often carry Kirby cukes, too. They're just delicious.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Our Pan Asian market has Kirbys year round, but right now they are TOP NOTCH

They're easily the best cukes there are.

[yellowdogintexas]

18. you got that right. Love those little things.

that is what we used to grow in our gardens when I was growing up

[sandnsea]

2. Oranges

I grew up in California. Those round orange balls in most grocery stores ain't oranges. And peaches aren't hard rocks or mushy rot. Find a local orchard or field and go pick 'em.

[grasswire]

5. farmer's market?

If you buy from local farmers, you'll do better. Perhaps there's a farmer's market or a farm stand near you. Please support your local farmers.

[Nay]

7. Apples, tomatoes (I now grow my own), melons in general.

[me b zola]

9. Celery

I don't even bother buying celery any more. Yeah, tomato's, I've learned that to actually taste a tomato from the grocery store I need to buy it in a can. :(

[housewolf]

10. Peaches

If they aren't picked ripe, they never ripen up. Even if they soften up, they're not good, sweet, delicious peaches. I keep trying supermarket peaches just because I keep hoping... and keep being disappointed. Found a few good ones at local farmer's markets, but the growing season is so short.

Totally agree with you about strawberries - those big, hard sour flavorless things just make me shake my head.

[Warpy]

12. Nothing picked green will ever ripen properly

no matter how much ethylene gas they spray on it. Oh, it'll look better than the hard, white strawberries or green peaches that were picked early because they transported more easily, but they'll never taste like the real thing.

My local supermarket occasionally has white peaches in the fall from a local grower. Those are the peaches I live for. Otherwise, I just don't bother.

[Dover]

11. The local (within the state) varieties of peaches and oranges are wonderful.

Can't beat a Texas peach or oranges from the Texas border area. Sweeeeeeet and juicy. And I get my strawberries locally too (a pick-your-own place nearby). Same with watermelons and tomatoes if I can get the locally grown ones. If not at a farmer's market, then there are lots of vendors along the main roads just outside of town that set up and sell out of the back of their vehicles.

However, buying any of it out of season and at a grocery store is another matter. Tasteless. So I will either not buy much of it off season, or if I've thought ahead I can freeze some of the really good peaches, strawberries, etc. to eat later in the year. I'm trying to get my garden up to speed so that it's producing many of these things...cuz as we all know, there's nothing like homegrown.

[BarbaRosa]

13. Sure seems like our Albertsons is devoting

a lot more shelve space for pre-packaged heat and serve 'food' products.

[wildeyed]

14. I am trying to grow my own watermelons this year.

An Amish heirloom variety called Moon and Stars. If I get any, I will post about how they taste.

[hendo]

15. Weird

in Colorado they are almost all only available seasonally, except for the fruits we get from Chile in the winter. So, fortunately, the fruit usually tastes pretty good.

If you want to get away from bland tomatoes, I recommend heirloom tomatoes. Standard tomatoes have been bred to be able to travel long distances and have long shelf lives.

[tigereye]

16. I have tasted strawberries from California that are pretty damn close to

what I remember as a kid in the 60s. (I live in Pa)


And I have to say that organic fruit from Whole Foods has some of that real taste.

[kestrel91316]

22. The very best strawberries in the world can be found at the farmer's market in

Goleta, CA (near Santa Barbara). There are a number of varieties that don't ship well at all, and we locals get them!!

I ONLY buy farmer's market strawbs here in LA, never grocery ones. NEVER.

[NashVegas]

17. UgliRipes Are Okay, But Generally

I only buy tomatoes when they're in season at the farmers' market.

If there's a small, indie green-grocer where you live who has good contacts with local farms, you're in luck!

[kestrel91316]

23. One of the stands at out farmer's market has BRANDYWINE tomatoes

during the season. They are very thin-skinned and even shipping to the FM is hazardous, but if you want a flavorful slicer and can get them, they are THE ONE.

[wryter2000]

19. Apples

Apples are just mush these days. I only buy them at the farmer's market when they're in season, fall and winter.

[Retrograde]

20. there was a lot of junk back then, too -

iceberg lettuce was the only kind available, tomatoes that could be used as golf balls ...I'm in my late 50s and there was a lot of stuff you couldn't buy back then.

I only buy fresh tomatoes when they're in season, otherwise canned have to do: I'd rather have decent canned tomatoes (Trader Joe's Italian are good) then something tasteless. There are new cultivars of strawberries that do bear year-round: I have some in my garden, and they have a few berries in winter. They don't travel well - at least they don't ever seem to make it as far as my kitchen :-)

I have no problem finding watermelons with seeds in California. Corn, on the other hand, is getting harder to find, especially good, sweet ears. I'm trying to grow my own this season.

[Tab]

21. I'm in New England, we get corn here

I'd like to try midwest corn, but the local stuff is fine, as is cider and as are apples.

Some of the shit we ate in school growing up just turned me off altogether, though. The list includes:

- "Vegetable medley"
- Peas
- Creamed corn
- Mashed potato
- Spinach - all variations, except raw
- Macaroni & Cheese
- And many others that I have mercifully forgotten.

Most of this stuff, the simple whiff of it makes me want to hurl, that's how pervasive and yet awful it was.

And don't even get me started on "Tuna Tetrazini".

I will say that mac & cheese has improved over the years. But that's about it.