“More than 3 decades ago, when we were first in this country, someone told me that most Americans prefer the more traditional orange (the kind that you can not peel as easily by hands.)”
Don’t believe everything you hear. Someone just made something up.
Anyway, these are just clementines, well marketed - I have a bag myself in my fridge. They’re available everywhere as far as I know.
Well, I think the navel oranges have always been popular. They are harder to peel, but so yummy. It does seem like they aren’t as consistent flavor-wise as the mandarins though.
It seems that anything seedless in fruit becomes very popular, and then takes over. Navels used to be the only seedless oranges available. I don’t remember seeing clementines as a kid, only tangerines that had lots of seeds. I don’t know their particular name, but they were sweeter and juicier than clementines. Not so easy to eat though.
Red seedless grapes first showed up in the 80s and seedless watermelon about 10 years after that. Seedless watermelon isn’t nearly as tasty, but I still buy it instead of the oblong kind with seeds.
I wish we had more variety in our produce. We tend to mono-produce whatever becomes popular and is easy to ship. I visited the USDA library once and they have something like 5000+ drawings of apples, all different varieties of apples, from the 1930s.
Farmers market here is very into heirloom tomatoes and some apples. The tomatoes really aren’t as great as I remember. My recent find was spring ginger, which is soft and milder (a fall crop.)
Have you tried cotton candy grapes? Mm mm mm.
@movemetoo, I found the Buddha’s Hand in my supermarket this AM. I’m glad I looked it up after you posted to see what it looked like. I’ve seen these in Asian markets, but didn’t know what we call them here in the States. The ones in my store didn’t look like anything I would want to buy and use - a bit worse for the transport. They would be fun for a centerpiece.
Buddha’s hand was sitting right next to fresh guava - also not looking the best. The dragon fruit looked fine, but I wouldn’t know how to buy a fresh dragonfruit - do you smell it or feel for ripeness? All the new Asian fruit is fun, but I’d like a bit of education to maximize the experience.
I like champagne grapes, but most arren’t grown in the US. They are like eatiing yummy bubbles.
Mmmm… We love champagne grapes, which are sold in local farm markets over the summer, and clementines.
I love star fruit for their appearance, and I’ll probably get one for Christmas, but they’re a bit bland.
We had a star fruit tree, but it was pretty bland and grew too near our house. It finally died by being choked by neighbor’s weed tree.
My D’s favorite fruit are Kiwis. Did you know that you can eat the skin along with the fruit?
My favorite fruit is just coming into season (at least in our local stores) … Cara Cara oranges. They are awesome!
I thought this thread was going to be about Star Fruit. But actually just about Clementines. Meh…