Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I only buy cherry tomatoes at the grocer. IMO they continue to have decent flavor whatever the season, although it is not consistent.
I long for the tomatoes of late summer. But, even then, it is hard to find a truly flavorful, ripe tomato. Backyard tomatoes are best. Truck farm tomatoes are often a distant second best. Tomatoes at the grocer are a waste of money, in my experience.
And I honestly dislike the newer strains of sweet corn. Even when turning starchy, the flavor stays sweet. But, to me, the flavor of a fresh ear tastes fake. But even then, it is better than starchy flavorless corn you used to find at the grocer.
We buy a lot of produce at our local farmers’ market when we can. I like buying what is in season. I could easily pig out on fresh peaches! And fresh strawberries.
Big agriculture has hybridized the flavor out of fruits and vegetables for the most part. Their goal is that the product is uniform, insect resistant and can withstand the rigors of shipping and time. All at the cost of flavor and nutrition. It's the same market conditions that make most bakery items so horrible. Welcome to America!
Seriously, that's what I was wondering. Why is the OP shopping for fresh produce at Walmart? lol. It sounds like the OP doesn't know where to shop for good produce. Or maybe he lives in a town with limited options.
In my initially two posts on this thread, I included both grocery stores and Walmart as being places in which the fruit and vegetables are tasteless.
Because the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores, including Walmart, have about as much flavor as a sheet of notebook paper. It's ridiculous! The only time this is not true is if the fruit or vegetables are in season locally (only a short time out of the year), you shop at the local farmer's market (which is also only seasonally available), or you go to Whole Foods or some other expensive, high end health food store. These high-end health food grocers are able to afford to fly in-season fruit and vegetables in from Brazil or some place because they will tack the cost of freight on the price you'll pay. No wonder so many Americans are fat. At least with the candy and junk food there is a good flavor and it's affordable. Not so with the fruit and vegetables in grocery stores; even though it's affordable you get no more satisfaction from the taste of it than you would from licking chalk.
I only consume organics myself, so I grow a lot my own veggies or purchase my veggies & fruits from our local organic farmers! I never buy anything that's not organic or contains GMO's !
I can get good veggies and fruit at Walmart. Target too.
Are you talking about when they're in-season? All fruit and vegetables have flavor when they're in season (and haven't gone bad) no matter the store. When they're not in season for the rest of the year, the F&V at Walmart may look good but the flavor (compared to natural ones from a farmer) just isn't there.
The only reason they even sell these vegetables is that people demand having out-of-season vegetables all year long. The best vegetables for flavor are not the best vegetables for shipping, so the tradeoff is getting what you want but in poor quality.
It's far better to buy frozen vegetables when they're not in season. They are usually picked and frozen locally the same day, and they are going to taste better and be more nutritious than something picked three weeks ago and shipped here from Chile just so somebody can wave it around and say it's "fresh". (Maybe that's why you see those stupid quotes around "fresh" in markets sometimes. They might be telling the truth instead of just misusing punctuation.)
Now some vegetables keep well in cold weather. Potatoes, carrots, other root vegetables, even cabbage, can keep for a long time. This is common sense when you stop to look at what people in northern countries traditionally ate in winter.
The first year I ever grew my own lettuce, I was shocked at how GOOD leaves could taste.
There's no reason to complain that supermarket vegetables don't taste that good. You know what the deal is when you walk into the produce department.
You've explained it very well along with a couple of other posts here. Before someone suggested it pages ago, I hadn't thought about buying frozen fruit and vegetables when they're no longer in season but it's a good idea. I'm going to try it on my next food shopping trip.
I have four grocery stores within a 10-minute drive, and the quality of the produce varies a lot. The closest store's produce is horrendous. Their apples are flavorless (I can barely taste the difference between varieties), and they turn brown within a couple of minutes of being bitten into. The other stores' apples are okay, but don't hold a candle to the apples grown at the two nearby orchards. I go to those orchards several times during apple season as the varieties ripen. Those apples are such a boost to a brown-bag lunch.
I'm considering joining a CSA.
NY state has many apple orchards on the island and upstate. Those apples, regardless of the type, taste like pure gold to the tongue. I've had apples from other orchards such as one in CT or states in the midwest. I've also had supposedly fresh "Washington state" apples and they're pretty good. However, no apples are better tasting to me than the ones from NY state orchards.
Then "they" are idiots who are being deliberately ignorant. How could they not know that out-of-season food is a) shipped in, especially because the origin is always noted, and b) that food bred for shipping endurance is not the most healthful? This is widely-known basic information of which most semi-intelligent adults are aware.
They buy it because they know it's the best or only thing available at the moment, but that's a choice.
No, it's not widely known among the average John and Jane Doe that the fruit and vegetables in their grocery store is not the most healthful. The average person buys from grocery stores and supermarkets in which they presume the food they're buying is not going to be harmful to them. Why would they think otherwise?
Even the junk food is assumed to be no more harmful than having a bit too much sugar or salt. For example, buying a bag of potato chips and a cakery from the bakery for a child's birthday party or babyshower. Yes, people know it's not healthy food but they aren't aware that it might actually contain GMO ingredients that or other harmful things to the human body. For people who are into consistently reading labels (which is the not the average American), watching what they put in their bodies, and/or into personal health and fitness what you're saying might be more widely known basic information. However, most people don't do those things.
That wouldn't apply to fruit and vegetables anyway since they don't come with labels which list: the substances used in the pesticides, types of growth enhancers, acknowledgment of wax, or gas used. Consequently, the average person wouldn't know that this is what happens.
i guess another first world problem...
..but personally i choose not to i dont like most veggies and ....not a lot of fruit....
Well, why are you attempting to criticize the tastebuds of someone who does love vegetables and eat a lot of fruit? By your own admission, you have no credibility IMO.
Well, around here, Wally World is not the place to buy fruits and vegetables (nor meat or fish, either). One goes to HEB for that.
As it is, my fruit consumption period is during work. Even if I do get something of a breakfast before my midshift, such as a salad, oat meal, or peanut butter tortillas, I fill up the mesh bag with fruit and munch on the stuff through the night.
As far as candy goes, in the current era, I gave that up for Lent. My religious commitment, however, doesn't include my Tollhouse cookie recipe adaption makings. That comes back under the joy of cooking and a belief in what I whip up from scratch. Yes, scratch; I don't buy cookie dough but rather, use flour, sugar, etc..
As far as junk food goes, I left that behind in the 80s but it was more due to realizing the economics and developing a joy of cooking.
Off topic...
Did you give up SWEETS for Lents or just candy? I gave up SWEETS for Lent which includes candy, pastries, cookies, etc.
Are you cheating by eating sweets during Lent?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I stated...
