On Radio 4 news today heard about this new fruit being introduced to the UK. Anyone tried growing them?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1262312/Pineberries-cream-The-new-summer-fruit-looks-like-white-strawberry--tastes-like-pineapple.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1262312/Pineberries-cream-The-new-summer-fruit-looks-like-white-strawberry--tastes-like-pineapple.html)
Weird, have they put this on a day early?
Nope, I've checked the diary!
Actually, my copy of The Fruit Manual by Robert Hogg (1884) has several strawberry varieties with 'pine' in the name, presumably because the flavour reminded the breeders of pineapple. It's nice that Waitrose is keeping up interest in fruit varieties. I think I'll taste these pineberries at least once, but I don't suppose I'll make a habit of buying them, mainly because of their premium price.
'Pine' and 'banana' turn up in the names of late 18th and 19th Centure varieties because these were exotic fruit which were only available to people with money to invest in greenhouse cultivation. Before it became possible to ship pineapples to Britain, the cost of producing one was around £80, the same as that of a new carriage. Hence the Pitmaston Pineapple and Winter Banana, which are apples.
on special offer for two weeks, and then work out at £14.50 a pound :o
might be worth buying a punnet and germinating the seeds......
Are these not just white al(pine) strawberries?
We've got a Pitmaston Pineapple tree, and the apples definitely have a twang of pineapple to them 8)
Yes, my Pitmaston Pineapple really does have a pineapple flavour.
Perhaps some of us will taste these new-fangled pineberries and report back on their taste?
I was lucky enough in my last job to travel in Brazil and some of the Spanish speaking countries in SA. There are many, many types of fruit that don't even have a tanslation into English, depending on who you speak to from 40-400!
There are juice bars on corners with about 30 single varieties. I understand that these were developed out of Rainforest fruits so don't think they're Alpine.
White alpine strawberries do have a pineapple flavour at one point/range of ripeness - I'd say about the same as Pitmaston Pineapple apples but less than the Ananas Reinette apple (which aren't actually as nice as Pitmastons in several other ways).
It's notable that a white strawberry from Turkey gave the highest level of antioxidants found in a trial in '08/'09.
The flavour was said to be different from the normal range of strawberries - not to everyone's liking and sounds very like the white alpines.
I wouldn't be surprised if the antioxidants in alpines generally are high - I don't think anyone has tested them systematically because the market is so tiny.
The pineberry may be a marketing push to gain access to people (like me) who like having ordinary strawberries but are also happy to gain access to a strawberry that tastes like an entirely different new fruit.
Anana is a very old name for pineapple. Do you know when the variety was bred?
I think it is an April Fool joke. Found wild in South America?
normal strawberries came from the Americas (south and North)
apparently they are available in waitrose.
http://www.patnsteph.net/weblog/2008/05/first-strawberries/
cheaper to buy a pineapple, a melon baller and a blindfold
ah...but a visit to casualty may result if I am let loose with a melon baller whilst blindfolded.....
they sampled them on the good morning show earlier in the week and I didn't get the feeling that the presenters where all that impresed. they didn't look that good either.
I would like the supermarkets to spend some effort into getting an apple to taste and feel like .......apple, instead of the tasteless pap with the texture of damp cardboard or if its crisp so unripe that the acid sourness makes your teeth tingle.
They could spend some time in continental supermarkets finding out how they manage to get fruit tasting like fruit should taste.
Quote from: Geoff H on April 01, 2010, 23:00:45
I would like the supermarkets to spend some effort into getting an apple to taste and feel like .......apple, instead of the tasteless pap with the texture of damp cardboard or if its crisp so unripe that the acid sourness makes your teeth tingle.
They could spend some time in continental supermarkets finding out how they manage to get fruit tasting like fruit should taste.
I agree about soggy apples but I've never tasted a shop-bought apple that was too sour, apart from the very earliest cookers. I frequently buy and bite Bramleys from mid-season on because all the eating apples on sale are sugary mush.
There are two camps of apple lovers - those that prefer the taste of apple pie (though they might not admit it) and those who regard a decent belt of fruit acid as the most important and delicious way that fresh fruit differs from preserved rubbish (and confectionery).
It definitely runs in families - either cultural or genetic I don't know, but the rationing of sugar and sweet tropical fruits during the war seems to have pushed the balance towards the pie-lovers.
Those of us who will take zing even without sugar seem to be in the minority compared to those who prefer sugar even without zing...
Don't assume continental shops have got it right - recent research has shown that peoples originating from our latitudes and points north are significantly more sensitive to sugar - presumably evolved this way in order to discriminate among native fruits.
Braeburns soon shipping fresh from the southern hemisphere are the closest you will get to the best of both worlds until your own trees crop; but provenance is everything - since unscrupulous merchants release N hemisphere equivalents from store exactly in time to compete at a lower price. Mainly the French of course.
No reputable retailer should sell such tasteless remnants so late. Last spring I was shocked to find this rubbish in Waitrose - and I gave the local fruit manager a piece of my mind for falling for this trick. Only the labels on the boxes gave the game away.
Even the little individual labels on the apples had been designed to look almost identical to the NZ version.
Be warned...
For sourness Granny smiths - they pick them too early so that the flavour does not develop. I am not comparing say French taste buds with ours. It is my taste buds when we have bought fruit on the continent compared with what we can buy here, there is just no comparison.
What we generally do after our apples have finished is buy from a local orchard whose apples are allowed to ripen on the tree before being picked and stored.
Supermarkets main priority with different fruit and veg is shelf life. so stuff like strawberries and tomatoes are picked far too early.
I agree that there is absolutely no comparison between a properly ripe Granny Smith and a supermarket one.
Some people's palates are far more sensitive to acidity and bitterness than others' and some people cannot detect notes such as nuttiness, pineapple or banana that give individual varieties their character. Such matters of taste are partly genetic (eg I was born a supertaster and make my food choices accordingly) and partly cultural - ie whether they live in a society that likes to make eating properties a matter of discussion.
For those who can't pick up lots of interesting flavours, the texture becomes all the more important, I imagine - crisp, crumbly, crunchy, juicy, silky, melt-in-the-mouth, and so on. There are lots of ways to enjoy a fruit! ;D
While we're talking about genetics - am I the only one who can taste the bitterness in the skin of Gala apples?
Gala (ugh) is my worst apple nightmare - mushy, sweet with zero sharpness and a finish as bitter as eating a spoonful of sugar wrapped in a privet leaf (I was going to say wormwood but the flavour of wormwood is quite pleasant - only the taste is bitter - with some nice resiny overtones).
The skins are fairly tough too - a real all-round stinker.
Quote from: Vinlander on April 02, 2010, 00:46:21
I agree about soggy apples but I've never tasted a shop-bought apple that was too sour, apart from the very earliest cookers. I frequently buy and bite Bramleys from mid-season on because all the eating apples on sale are sugary mush
Supermarkets round here, at least recently, have been selling apples that just aren't ripe. they have white pips!
Quote from: Vinlander on April 02, 2010, 20:42:39
While we're talking about genetics - am I the only one who can taste the bitterness in the skin of Gala apples?
Gala (ugh) is my worst apple nightmare - mushy, sweet with zero sharpness and a finish as bitter as eating a spoonful of sugar wrapped in a privet leaf (I was going to say wormwood but the flavour of wormwood is quite pleasant - only the taste is bitter - with some nice resiny overtones).
The skins are fairly tough too - a real all-round stinker.
You are not alone, bitter skin overly wet centre, the skin also separates from the flesh easily, which means I find the skin often gets stuck between my teeth.
I can taste the bitterness in the skin of Gala and lots of other red-skinned apples, too. Though they do say that red apples are healthier than green 'uns...
There is one - repeat only one, really good red apple - it's called William Crump and it is absolutely brilliant.
All the others are truly awful.
(Yes I have tried American Mother and it's only worth eating after a really good summer).
Cheers.