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Comment by forthwall | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this has happened to most apples, even most fruit, forcing fruit to become all-year fruit in general has made those fruits worse off in the long term in terms of quality due to the necessity to make them long lasting. I used to personally dislike all apples until I started getting them from farmers markets that only sold them seasonally as opposed to supermarkets or costco, suddenly they started to taste like something and not just water.

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A significant number of the "farmers" at farmer's markets arent. Some even buy thier stock from costco and the like. A commercially productive farmer does not have the time to spend a day selling a few apples in the city center. The safer bet is to drive out to roadside stands at the actual farms, then of course then you can only buy the one or two products currently being harvested at that paticular farm. The upside is that, as you are driving rather than walking, you can load up on 50+lbs of corn for friends and family without worry.

When I load up on 50+lbs of corn, it isn't for my friends and family to eat.

At least not directly.

In California certified farmers markets are not allowed to re-sell produce.

Not sure if it's enforced. And it's hard to look up non-existing laws in other states. When I don't find something I assume I'm not searching correctly, but in this case there might just not be a law to find.

People rave about bio produce. Ie we keep buying only bio carrots, they are not much more expensive than regular ones. I like the taste.

But when I come home and taste some carrots my parents grow in their garden, oh my god - this is extreme premium in taste world. I understand its a different type, not created for maximal yield as quickly as possible. And so it goes with everything.

If you like various berries you can buy in stores, just don't ever taste wild ones in the forest, it will ruin them for you.

Yup. Incentive to use brand recognition for a lower quality, cheaper to produce in more volume substitution is too strong for a large business to ignore.

The market is not kind to consumers that put their faith in "brands" without owners.

I put brand in quotes because anyone can produce and sell honeycrisp apples. It is not trademarked.

Buying one is like buying a hammer on amazon and assuming it will have the quality of different hammer you used.

>I feel like this has happened to most apples, even most fruit, forcing fruit to become all-year fruit in general has made those fruits worse off in the long term in terms of quality due to the necessity to make them long lasting.

Feel like the same can be said about just all industrial revolution related inventions. The consumer culture caters to the wimp of convenience instead of the whole ecosystem.

I love garden grown tomatoes but am frequently disappointed by the flavorless, watery, mushy ones that show up in my sandwiches and salads when I eat out. Seasonality is a factor, maybe.

The tomatoes sold in store are bred for ticker skin to allow for mechanical picking, but that came at the cost of taste.

https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/news/how-mechanical-to...

Interesting! I specifically remember wondering "why is the skin so tough on this?" before, when trying to take a bite of a sandwich and ending up with a whole slice of tomato pulling out.

It's not just seasonality per se — it's that produce is simply not bred to taste good anymore. It's designed to be hardy enough to ship, growable all year round, free of blemishes, but not to actually taste good.

I'm not an organic/"local" produce snob, but garden tomatoes are tough to beat for flavor. Campari have the best flavor I've found from grocery stores.

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