Change and Shift, October 3, 2005

Fifty years ago, words like nutrition and wellness meant steak and eggs; today, they mean isoflavonoids, antioxidants, and fruit in your office.

While our long-term perspectives on food change as we learn more, within each year, the change of season renews the experience of what we eat. We just passed through the fall equinox on September 22nd. The fall equinox is the day in autumn that daylight and darkness each occupy an equal 12 hours of the day. What it means for the fruit world is that we are coming out of summer and moving into fall. What it means for you is the fruit mix in your box is changing.

Peaches

We have found two very late variety of peaches, one yellow and one white. The yellow peach is aptly labeled the last tango as the peaches are now coming to an end. Both peaches have a dull looking finish to them but when ripe, eat very well. I recommend that you allow these to ripen until they give slightly under the pressure of your touch. They should be great at that point.

Fresh Fuji Apples

This is not your traditional Fuji. They are not striped but are more constant in their red & yellow coloring. Plus, they are on the smaller side of our size range. We picked these over the larger apples because they were sweeter to the taste. We sometimes find that smaller fruit retains more sugar per volume than larger fruit. A few years ago, a peach grower from the central valley explained it to me this way: Some farmers will water their trees in such a way as to have the fruit blow-up with moisture. If you have two trees where the fruit had the same sugar content, but one tree pumped more water into the fruit, then the fruit would grow larger and water down the sugars. Thus, although the large pieces may look good, you have to sample them to make sure that the sugar was not diluted in the growing process.

I hope you enjoyed the Winter Banana Apples last week. We will keep buying those heirloom apples and pears as they come up. (That is just one fun part of this job. Dressing up in a banana suit is another, but more about that later…)

Enjoy and be fruitful! – Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com