Hi Peter and Sheila,

Peter:
>I have searched for natural olives for years but no luck. Are they left
>to age on the trees and how do they taste? I understand that fresh
>olives taste quite bad.

The trick is, to put the freshly harvested olives into a jar and firmly
close it. The are conserved by their own ripening gas and can be stored
over than one year with this method.
I wonder, why commercial/organic olives always are conserved with oil
or salt. It's simply not necessary!

If you want to eat the olives, you open the jar and let it open for
one day. The olives become ripe and eatable.
But just some days ago an instincto woman told me, that she eates the
fresh olives out of the jar. That's impossible for me. They are much
too hot. It seems to depend on your needs, as always.
Depending on the age, olives may taste like bread, butter,... or sim-
ply like... olives. ;-)

Sheila:
>I used to eats lots of sapodillas when I lived in Miami. Another rare
>fruit imported from Dominican Rep and similar to and larger than and
>now allowed to be grown in Miami is the mamey. Has anyone eaten that?

I think it must be Sapote Mamey. Instinctos claim, it tastes like mar-
zipan if you need it. It's one of the few fruits I haven't developed
a taste for yet. When I tried it, it was more or less sweet, couldn't
discover an interesting taste.

Sheila:
>One of my agricultural opinions is that our food choices are restricted
>by industrialized agriculture which dictates fruit choices in a narrow
>range.

That's true for sure. But my view is a bit different: farmers only did,
what the customers asked for. And the customers don't give a cent for
rare, wild and unusual fruit. They want to get something, they can eat
any time without problems. Well, they got what they wanted. :-(

Best instinctive regards,
Stefan