" In Germany many years ago we were used having quite seasonal fruit supplies. The apples (part of dad's stable diet) were great during harvest season in autumn but slowly the quality deteriorated throughout the year. We had Granny Smith as imports from New Zealand from around Christmas, which tasted great as their flavor was different from the local varieties. Other imported fruits were available basically all year round but the taste was pretty ordinary, some even required additional sugar. So we were used to having all sorts of fruits that tasted quite average. Coming to Australia it was like entering paradise, the fruits were so much sweater that sometimes we even felt sick after eating too much. Dad praised the Australian sun and the short distance to the markets and consumers for the top notch quality of the produce. In the beginning there was also a lot of second and even third grade fruit and vegetables to be found, meaning overripe and damaged.
A lot has changed since those days. Everything now is first grade produce, also sometimes you can get stuff after its "use by" date, which is different to second grade produce. These days all produce has a significant longer shelf-life, meaning that especially the the fruits are harvested much earlier, or in other words premature. The best example is Australian grown kiwi fruits. They are like little rocks when you buy them. After 2 weeks on the kitchen table they are still as hard and only started to shrivel a bit due to moisture loss. If you try to eat one make sure you have heart burn medicine handy, as the sourness will eat right through your stomach lining. Give the kiwi fruits another 2 weeks and they reduced in size by about 50% with their firmness still intact. If you are lucky you get the odd one soft enough to test for edibility but most of them shrink further before rotting away without ever gaining enough taste to beconsumed. While I still every now and then try a batch of Australian grown kiwi fruits in the hope to find some than are tasty, I more or less have given up and retreated to buying fruits from New Zealand or Italy. Never thought that Italian kiwi can be better than Australian. But there is always something new to learn here in Australia.
A lot has changed since those days. Everything now is first grade produce, also sometimes you can get stuff after its "use by" date, which is different to second grade produce. These days all produce has a significant longer shelf-life, meaning that especially the the fruits are harvested much earlier, or in other words premature. The best example is Australian grown kiwi fruits. They are like little rocks when you buy them. After 2 weeks on the kitchen table they are still as hard and only started to shrivel a bit due to moisture loss. If you try to eat one make sure you have heart burn medicine handy, as the sourness will eat right through your stomach lining. Give the kiwi fruits another 2 weeks and they reduced in size by about 50% with their firmness still intact. If you are lucky you get the odd one soft enough to test for edibility but most of them shrink further before rotting away without ever gaining enough taste to beconsumed. While I still every now and then try a batch of Australian grown kiwi fruits in the hope to find some than are tasty, I more or less have given up and retreated to buying fruits from New Zealand or Italy. Never thought that Italian kiwi can be better than Australian. But there is always something new to learn here in Australia.