Oranges! I've been burned when I buy oranges, that are so sour. I love oranges but I can't depend on them.

I wish they'd outlaw selling carrots in plastic bags that have an orange hue to them. They look nice and fresh until you take them out of the bag. Then you find out they're dried and old.

I almost never buy peaches at the store anymore. They're ROCKS. We get some hand picked, tree ripened peaches, and those are the only ones I'll buy. We used to get regular peaches that were ripe, but not for years.

I won't buy most apples either. They're all mealy. We used to have such delicious apples, including the ones called delicious. Now people give apples to their kids and wonder why they throw them away. It's because they're just not very good.

Here, the tomatoes are almost always good. I do choose a bit, but generally the whole crop is fine. The melons need to be chosen, but most are good enough that if they aren't ripe, you can put them in a paper bag for a few days and they'll be fine. The trick is to inspect the ends for softness--a little yielding especially at the ends, and rind for color (should be lightened), give them a heft for weight to size (should be full of water) and a rap to hear if they're hollow sounding.

I don't have a surefire way to know if the avocados are brown inside. If you buy them with a little give but still pretty hard, they'll ripen on the counter. If they're squishy, they're past good. If they're yielding but not soft, they're perfect in ripeness, but still could be bruised.

Jasdip, oranges should travel well. You can't go by pretty. Cradle an orange in your hand like a chick and see if it's weighty. Maybe toss it up a little like a baseball, and feel how heavy and solid it is when you catch it. The sweet ones with a lot of juice are the heavy ones. If they're Valencias or other juicing oranges, especially, they could be partly greenish and have a lot of surface mars and be wonderful inside. Even navels, which are almost always pretty, need to be heavy to be good.

The best artichokes are tight, but for flavor are also the best if they're a bit frostbit. That's some black streaks. Ugly but not dead looking.

Klseiverd, do you have a snooty independent grocery store in snootyland anywhere near you? You might take a look at their produce if you do. You pay for it, but at the ones near me, the produce department gets in the best lots they can buy then cull them for the best of what's in the boxes. You really can just grab anything and it'll be somewhere in the range of fine to fantastic. They'll also give you a sample if you ask, and choose the best for you if you'd prefer.

Peaches are hit or miss. Last year we lucked out and found really tasty ones at Trader Joe's. They were selling them by the crate. Bought first of the season at the farmers' market yesterday. Not a big peach flavor yet. By June the flavor should improve.

We tend to buy more apples in the fall - winter when Macs and Cortlands are available. The rest of the year rely on Pink Ladys and Honeycrisp. I buy organic whenever possible.

I eat a lot of avocadoes. They require patience and perfect timing. ;)

Bought a mini watermelon last week. No sweetness. Disappointing!

Peaches, tomatoes, plums, summer corn. I wish they were all perfect all the time, grocery store or famers market.

However...subpar fruits and veg can be salvaged in the right hands ;-)

I'm mostly disappointed with fruit. As much as it costs it should all be good. Nothing worse than Jonesing for a juicy sweet peach and get it home and it's awful. I always smell the peaches, nectarines and cantalopes. But sometimes even when there is a fragrance it isn't good. The worst are the melons. Mostly tasteless. Except when the King-o-the-West honeydews come in, they are always divine. The only good tasting apple I've had in over a year were the Pink Lady apples that I bought at - (you're not going to believe this) - Walmart. The only vegetable I get disappointed with on occasion is fresh corn.

It is somewhat helpful to purchase in-season, that is, in-season in your area, not someplace around the world.

I live in Kansas and wait for Colorado peaches in the summer, otherwise I'll use frozen or freeze-dried. There is a fresh shipment brought once a week from Colorado during the peak of peach season and sold in the parking lot of a local hotel. Get there early because they always sell out by 10 a.m. If I happen to get a less-than-perfect bunch of peaches, I will make it into a sauce and add a tablespoon of peach-flavored Jell-O to boost the flavor. Sounds crazy but it really does the trick. They also mix well with other fruit and work for making fruit leather. I don't waste anything.....

-Grainlady

I ask..."Where are these from?"......and judge what they might be like from the answer.

Rita, you reminded me of my pet peeve. Seedless watermelons! I long for the type that has dark red flesh with large black seeds! They have flavour, not like the insipid washed out pink fleshed ones we can only buy now.

I stopped buying honeydews. They are completely tasteless.

I also find fruits more difficult to purchase and enjoy than vegetables. Tomatoes and avocados are the exception. But we grow our own tomatoes. Short window of time for that. Avacados don't grow in New England.

I buy in season from the farmer's market, but they don't sell non-local things like citrus/avocados or anything out of season. I was thrilled to find the first of local carrots and strawberries this week.

I agree totally about plastic bag carrots. My biggest objection to those and the ones sold as "baby' (not) carrots in bags is that they always taste mildewed to me. If they want to store them, they should store loose and bag before shipping, but I think they just store the plastic bags in a humid environment and they taste like mold/mildew. I have had better luck in the winter with TJ's organic rainbow carrots. They are pretty good and not mildewy.

Out of season, I've had reasonable luck with TJ's organic items. When I found organic apples last week from Argentina being sold at my totally organic, socially conscious food co-op, I about flipped. We live in the top apple producing state and they are importing apples from S. America?? I didn't buy any, but noticed that TJ's had organic WA apples by the bag that were perfectly delicious - Fuji's maybe - not my fave, but better than buying from S America.

I also have good luck with TJ's organic avocados in the bags, maybe 4 or 5 per bag. They are hard as rocks, but I put them in refer and pull out one or two - they ripen to perfect in a day or two and will last for weeks in the refer.

I bought the best fresh pineapple from TJ's that I've ever had a few weeks ago. Not organic, but stupendously good.

I agree that local and in season is better, but we also get awesome produce from Mexico. What's really bad are the ROCKS that are called peaches. They're local. They're in season. They're inedible.

We just had the best organic apples of any recent memory...so good and crisp...and so sad that is so rare!

DH does most of the shopping as i work longer hours. The grocery list is a bit hilarious as it will state...one lemon...two limes...12 grapes(lol)...cilantro only if it looks good...greens, your choice, i prefer kale, but collards is fine...6-8 potatoes....variety...ginger if firm...one avocado...4 onions, variety....check other good looking treats in season.

Our joke is 12 grapes. He used to think you had to buy the 5 limes for 2 bucks...the entire rotting grape bag. (pass it up)...don't have to buy the 4 avocados for 10 bucks...(pass it up if expensive)...one lemon is fine.

I just like a minimal stocked fridge and pantry as meal prep and decisions are often 'on the moment' wing-it. I like a bit of 'fresh' with just about any meal.

He is really good about finding the best and freshest greens and local seasonal produce now.

Just used the last apple in a slaw. I've not had a memorable peach in years.

I did have a memorable salad in a restaurant last fall. Big meaty and tender torn greens, a few varieties. In a big glass bowl like an upside-down lampshade...just kissed with a lemon dressing. (some dressing on the side without asking)...it was a lunch special side freebie that we talked about for days how good that salad was. How good produce can be so fresh.

Add me to the list of people who just can't manage to buy an avocado that isn't brown in the middle. I haven't had a decent cantaloupe that I didn't grow myself in years, and I've even been recently disappointed by pears. They sit on the counter, hard, until they mold, but they never soften or taste good.

Tomatoes I only eat in the summer, when I can pick them from the garden. I've given up on the styrofoam imposters that are passed off as tomatoes in the store.

Jasdip, I'm also with you on oranges. They seem to be sour or else dried out, but very seldom sweet and juicy.

Annie

I guess I am pretty lucky....I can spot a good avocado....and when they don't look good I don't buy! If I am not buying farmer's market tomatoes, I buy Romas.
But we get wonderful cantalope....Muscatine melons that when they come in are good enough to eat until you get sick. Big, juicy, fragrant and cheap because they come from about 130 miles away!

Jasdip, the King of the West honeydews are like eating candy, the only place that I know of that has them in my area are the Publix groceries, I believe it's in August. If you can find out where to get them in your area you should really give them a try.

I only buy rockmelons/cantaloupes from a local grower when they have them as the supermarket ones all taste like wet cardboard (even in season) :-P I have similarly pretty well given up on peaches. I too miss the oldfashioned, tasty watermelons with seeds. Seriously, how hard is it to spit the seeds out? And a variety of pears (Corella) which have in previous years been really sweet and juicy have been floury and bland this year, even from totally different suppliers so I'm guessing it's something to do with this season. I'm sticking to Bartletts/Williams this year as they have been (unusually) consistently yummy.

Peaches & nectarines here tend to be either the biggest disappointment or heavenly. I buy organic only & find it mostly worth it. Now that we have a Trader Joe's, I buy mostly from there. Too bad season is ending for oranges, because they have had the most wonderful navel oranges by the bagful - hubby & I were eating several daily. I still have a few left in the fridge. Watermelon is something I love, but hubby hates, so I've been pretty happy w/ the couple of seedless minis I've had so far, except the 2nd isn't seedless, but has a number of black seeds.

Almost forgot to add that 1 good way to ascertain some fruit's quality is by aroma - esp. cantelopes, peaches, pineapples & pears.

Mangoes. I bought some once, and they were hard and unripe for nearly a week. Then they went directly from unripe to rotten. Bleah.

Yep....mangoes....never found a good one in the middle of Iowa.

I tend to buy fruit at the farmers' markets, and they always have sample to try, but Bristol Farms also has samples of fruit occasionally, especially citrus. I seldom buy lemons or limes since I grow those myself, and the pineapple I harvested recently was better than I expected. I grow blood oranges, but so far the ones I've gotten have been a bit on the sour side, and so I buy them at the farmers' market or else get them as gifts from people at work who grow them in a hotter climate than mine. I grew mangoes in Venice, and they were as good as the ones I've had in Mexico, but I have not tried planting a mango tree where I live now, and I do not find them at the farmers' markets. However, I've bought good mangoes at the grocery store - I prefer Manila mangoes, which are golden when ripe (like the ones I grew), and they are fairly small. I avoid mangoes that have green in their skin, but a friend from Senegal prefers green mangoes, and she uses them in salads. They are tart and crisp, and I also like them that way.

At the stores where I buy most of my produce, they always give samples. Besides what's out for promotion, the guys working in the department will cut you one if you ask. Sometimes they'll just offer if you look indecisive.

Lars, did you get mango rash from your previous tree?

Where I now live I have four choices: Meijer, Walmart, Aldi and Save a Lot, all "big box" stores. (sigh) The prices are better than they were at my small local grocery in White Cloud, but the produce is much, much worse. Certainly no samples, and the best produce is actually usually from Aldi, although their selection is extremely limited.

I could take that 50 mile drive to Grand Rapids, and I do sometimes, but not regularly. There I can find a year round farmer's market, a Trader Joe's, independent meat markets and Fresh Thyme. I think a Whole Foods will be opening eventually.

My favorite local farmer's market isn't open yet this year, I have a month or so before they even start selling, although the pick your own strawberries should be ready in a few weeks, and sweet cherries after that.

I've also done the "sniff" test, if it smells lovely it's probably good. The problem is that there's a big pile of cantaloupe and none of it smells good. Most produce is prepackaged, so a bag of apples or oranges isn't something you can open and check.

Fortunately, I'm not a big fan of fruit, and seldom eat it unless I grow it myself. Vegetables seem to be more predictable and better quality and I eat more of those.

Annie

Annie, it's no wonder you grow your own when those are the choices for buying. It's such a shame about the big box stores. And agribusiness. More food for all is good, but when the food isn't worth eating, what's the point?

Our local market just declared chapter11. A shame as the plans were to expand beyond the Tri-state area. Just a bit slow trying to compete with others...probably ten yrs too late. Good produce.

Plllog, we actually had a couple of grocery stores in Big Rapids. One went out of business when WalMart opened, the other gave up when Meijer came in. (sigh) For some reason there just doesn't seem to be the farmer's markets, roadside stands and U-picks that there are just 25 miles west. When I lived in White Cloud there was always local produce at the grocery store and small roadside stands all over. Here there seem to be none. I have to go back to pick blueberries or strawberries or cherries and even the apples aren't grown here, but big orchards are just 25 miles away. It's very odd. There's a small farmer's market in Big Rapids, but it only seems to have a dozen or so vendors, I'm not sure what's that's all about.

I'm only assuming that Ferris State University is the big employer and it draws students, not farmers.

Annie

What a shame! I hate what the big discounters have done to the small towns.

So, a lot of universities are really getting into the thoughtful eating movement. Even when the university isn't, student groups are. It's not like I think you need a project or anything--Heaven knows you have your hands full--but if you were interested you might find out what they're doing at the local campus and perhaps (with a few phone calls to people who might do the work) a working relationship can be put together between the food service or student co-ops and the local farmers. Might help raise the standards all around, increase access to better produce, improve the farmers' markets, etc.

I never got mango rash from my mango tree, and I've never heard of it before!

Cherries. I ADORE fresh Cherries. The season is so short, and they are so expensive,but the month or two that I can get them fresh I buy them like crazy and eat them all day. This year though, I wonder if they are not in stores a little to early. The first batch I bought looked beautiful. They were dark and shiny and looked delicious. They were inedible. Sooooo sour. Hard too. Very disappointed. 4 dollars a pound for that? Oh well, maybe the next batch will be better. I'm afraid I'll never learn my lesson, not when it comes to cherries anyway...

I am fortunate to get most of my seasonal produce from my sister, who has a small farm near me. Unfortunately, cherries are nearly impossible to grow in AL. I have been wasting time and money on trying for years. Sigh.

Oh, good, Lars! I had visions of the itchy thing interfering with your garden. I'm allergic to eating mangoes, too, which isn't so common, but mango rash is a known thing among mango pickers, at least in the region where my friends were picking way back when, and most get it from touching the tree. Maybe it's only some types?

Amylou, I got some early cherries that had a can't pass it good price. They were the little pointy type, not the big double cherries we get later in the season. They were boxed, and too many were bad, but adjusting the price to account for the bad ones, it was still a bargain. They're ripe and juicy, sweet, but not end of summer dripping with sugar sweet. The flavor is a little thin, but I think that's the type. So have heart! Maybe see if you can get a sample on the next try!

The flavor is a little thin, but I think that's the type.

We have beautiful dark cherries in the stores right now and they are sweet, but not very flavorful, so maybe it's something to do with the growing season.

Mango rash is an allergy. You can develop very specific allergies: to the sap, to the peel, etc. I'm ferociously allergic to mango pollen, but I can eat the fruit all day long or pick them with no problems.

Oh yeesh, writersblock - I developed dermatitis over most of my body from using a lotion containing mango seed butter (Aubrey Organics). Took several weeks to clear up w/ medication.

Mango seed butter? What a crazy idea, carolb! How could they not have known that a huge number of people would be likely to have some kind of bad reaction to that?

ETA Did that make you sensitive to cashews now? Just curious, since mango allergy often goes along with that.

Whoever wrote that seedless watermelons are flavorless watermelons -- spot on! I long for the watermelon of my youth, seeds and all...

Apologies for the sidetrack, but in re: writersblock's question, I've had no other reactions & yes! the mango seed butter thing is C-R-A-Z-Y!

Whoever wrote that seedless watermelons are flavorless watermelons -- spot on! I long for the watermelon of my youth, seeds and all...

Yes, I completely agree. And the same for so many other fruits. I'm really tired of eating produce where I can't tell with my eyes closed whether it's a zucchini or a peach. Certainly can't tell by taste or texture much of the time these days.

Carolb, glad it didn't trigger other reactions for you.

It would be wonderful to be able to buy tomatoes and peaches and know they are awesome,....but that's totally dreaming! I had the best peaches of my life in Michigan, think it was new haven peaches....and pence peaches from the Okanagan are spectacular....and love Rainier Cherries too. And yes, was wondering if it was still possible to get watermelons with the big old black seeds!

Writersblock, I didn't know about the different kinds of allergies in a mango tree! I just remember a trip with my friends who had all been picking mangos, and who were all suffering to a greater or lesser extent with long streaks of calomine on their rashes. I'm allergic (though not severely) to mango fruit but not to cashews--though I've been eating a lot more cashews recently so I'll pay attention if a reaction seems to be coming on. I'm not really concerned, though. Totally agree that putting a known allergen into body lotion is ridiculous!

HB, we grow New Haven and Red Haven peaches, and they are wonderful, but only available locally for a small window of time. Same with cherries, whether they are the lighter Ranier or the dark Bing type. There's nothing better, though, when they are right off the tree and not shipped anywhere at all. Mmmmm.

Watermelon is something I've had little luck growing. They get big, they get red, they taste like......nothing. Even right out of my garden. I think they need more days of heat than I can give them in northern Michigan.

The small seedless ones seem to be the ones most reliably available here too, and they are pretty flavorless.

Annie

Oh cherries! Haven't seen the organic ones in the stores here yet...

Just bought another big bag of cherries. These are way better than the last. Now if only I can wheedle SO into handing over his pickup truck keys so I can go get enough to satisfy my cherry addiction......

Definitely watermelon. When it is good, it is very good, and when it is bad, it is horrid. Yes, for some reason not enough warm days in MI for good watermelon, at least that has been my experience. I've had some good honeydew and cantaloupe back in the day but not sure about now. Stopped buying the stuff at the store, just a waste, and haven't found a good farm source.

Simplifying living plants and breeding them for corporate needs seems to be the wave of the future for "biotechnology." That's going to be the biotech revolution and I'm afraid human brains are puny compared to nature, (or God if you're so inclined) when it comes to the task of "designing" plants. We used to embrace local breeds but with centralization of production, who cares about all that. Don't really think the "local foods" movement is strong enough to challenge the relentless economics of modern agriculture. The joys of diverse flavorful produce will be relegated to a choice few hobbyists. If you want to read a great treatise on this, read, "Epitaph for a Peach" by David Masumoto.

As a side note, I used to run a maple syrup operation and one year the local TV station decided to do a "taste test" with kids for maple syrup against Mrs. Butterworth's. The adults on the crew who had all grown up eating maple syrup said that the kids would prefer it, but we warned them, we knew better. Mrs. Butterworth's won hands down, unanimous for all three kids. Maple syrup has a definitive taste, Mrs. Butterworth's has hardly ANY taste, definitely "designed" to offend no one. One has to develop a taste for maple syrup, and there's a lot of context to it, other than just the taste. I think we would be surprised how limited the palette's are of most people in our culture today because we are not like "most people." But it is very much out there, no one minds that things have "no taste" because they have never known "taste." One cannot love and preserve what one does not know.

Very thoughtful post, l pink. This, though:

The joys of diverse flavorful produce will be relegated to a choice few hobbyists.

is the best possible outcome. Are you aware that in the EU a law was very nearly passed a couple of years ago that would have made it illegal to sell any seed variety that hadn't gone through a long expensive "validation" process, which would have made it impossible for any small (i.e. heritage) seed companies to survive?

And those folks are much less tied to big Ag than we are. I fully expect that we'll see something like that in the law here in the not too distant future. If you grow seedy watermelons, you'll be a criminal.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2013/dec/19/eu-law-plants-seeds

Man schemes, God laughs!

You don't have to "sell" seeds, you can trade them. In fact, if you know how to save them, you end up with more than you know what to do with. Anyone with half a brain for biology would support seed banks, which I do. I belong to "Seed Savers Exchange." But I'm a plant weenie in addition to being a food weenie.

Oh, if you read the proposed legislation, even saving your own seeds would have been illegal if they hadn't been approved, a process which would have cost the equivalent of several thousand dollars per variety.

Our grocery store has green beans for 97cents/lb. I've been there twice, and the pile is still virtually untouched. Obviously people feel the same as me. They have rust spots on them, blotchy, not nice at all. Disappointing to say the least, it's 1/3 of the cost, normally.

Apples. When they're in season they're delicious but when they're out of season they can either be mushy or crisp, and you won't know until you're biting into it.

Mangoes can be the same way as well, you might get a ripe one, or you might get one that seems ripe that's good around the edges but pure mush in the center.