Fruit Loop

Summer fruit is pretty good stuff. Some of it rivals the attraction of those other food groups such as chocolate, cakes, ice-cream etc (though a lot of it is even better with ice-cream). I particularly enjoy the summer fruit season when the stone fruits, mangoes, lychees and grapes turn up in the shops - so much more enjoyable than the lean autumn months when all you have are apples, mandarins and pears (I head mostly for bananas during those times). However. However, I have noticed over the last few years a disturbing trend. It appears that those who bring us the fruit have noticed that fruit such as nectarines, peaches and plums are quite popular, and endeavor to get the product to us as soon as possible. So eager are they to supply us with the product that they often appear to forget to let it ripen first. I don’t know how many times I have been attracted to a display of colourful nectarines or peaches, only to pick one up and discover that underneath its colourful exterior, it is without that rich ripe perfume and rather hard and dry. Sure you can take it home and hope that it ripens, but I have found that many of them don’t – they just sit there and finally go a bit wrinkly.

We discovered another fun aspect of fruit shopping while in France and Italy. Many of the fruit shops there have a clear policy that when shopping for their produce, you can look but not touch. While not really happy about this, we complied (after the first reprimand), assuming that the idea was to prevent the fruit from becoming bruised. We were therefore bemused to observe staff at two fruit shops take out bananas, practically throw them into the weighing scales and then throw them into plastic bags, which they proceeded to whirl around. After this observation, we weren’t surprised to find that our bananas were covered in fresh bruises. It seemed that bruising was just part of the service.