Red Delicious was A+ in its original incarnation. Then folks kept grafting from bud sports (=sometimes a tree throws a branch that's a little different, it's normal) w darker & darker fruit. Selected for color instead of quality. 100+ yrs later we now have purple foamballs. https://twitter.com/kaichoyce/status/1055944025121771520 …
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(8/) IIRC the top-testing blueberry from that program during my time there was Meadowlark. Bless its heart, it's a great bush- but the fruit is a bland-ass water bean. Its max flavor level is a faint whiff of violets. BUT PEOPLE LOVED IT. WHAT. HOW
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(9/) Anyway, it seems like every other thinkpiece about ~food these days~ has obligatory remarks on how The Scientists Are Breeding Crops For Durability Instead of Flavor. lmao fuck that, we keep TRYING to breed for flavor & getting sabotaged by y'all on the taste panels
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(10/) Again, there's some really complex human systems stuff going on in our produce markets. Like asking why so many ppl seem to prefer bland fruit. We'd really be able to help ourselves out if we actually ... looked at that?
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(11/) But it wraps the story up in a neat little bow to blame ~science~ so sure let's do that instead. -cut to scientists hissing Gollum-style over the 3 good berry plants from their field trials that never made it to market because The People Have Spoken-
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(12/) Hrmmm replies have turned into a "let's hate on the plebes who don't appreciate fruit like ~we~ do" sesh. The entire point of this thread was, there's a HUGE spectrum of flavors out there most of us don't ever encounter & we don't know what we don't know.
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(13/) Statistically speaking, MOST OF US in the ol' u s of a are secretly one of those majority of people who like shitty bland fruit, AND WE'LL NEVER KNOW IT. Happy Halloween!
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If you like this thread, check out the Farm to Taber podcast! Season 2 is coming soon https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/farm-to-taber/id1418015843?mt=2 … Also Patreon. Because podcasting is my winter job lmao:https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5610560
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It's selecting for the ones that everybody finds sort of nice. And assuming not pissing anyone off is the same thing as people really liking it.
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Most of those aren't "fruitlike" exactly, in many cases they're literally the chemical that gives natural fruit its dominant flavor. They're just stripped of context and subtlety.
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