On Tuesday, June 24, 2003, at 10:10  PM, Keith Thomas wrote:
> That is, so many of our commonest fresh fruits have been bred recently,
> grafted onto rootstock, sprayed, fertilized, artificially ripened with
> one
> gas, flooded with another gas to prevent over-ripening, possibly
> irradiated, eaten months after picking, that they have lost the
> nutritional characteristics they had in the Pleistocene?

Could be. Most supermarket fruit varieties are bred for their tough
skins and resistance to bruising, as well as visual appeal. Very little
effort goes into taste or smell, as these can't be determined through
the plastic wrapper. $B!! (BThe red delicious apple is the perfect example,
few apples are prettier, and few taste as bad or are as chalky
textured. It is hardly worth your trouble to buy apricots, plums or
many other fruits in the supermarket. They are so bland and unappealing.

On this list I have often seen people write that modern fruit is
sweeter than paleo fruit. Well, some maybe, but generally it just ain't
so. Many paleo fruits have higher acid content, so they don't taste as
sweet, but when perfectly tree ripened their sweetness and flavor are
superior to most commercial fruit.

Crab apples come in endless variety, from tiny and astringent to large
and sweet, and they ripen from july to the snow, depending on the
individual tree. Some are very nice.