What Supermarket Produce Do You Use?

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I am writing this as I crunch through what is supposed to be a Granny Smith apple. The dictionary definition is:

apple with a green skin and hard tart flesh

Green? Check. Hard? Check. Tart? Barely.

These apples, as with any produce at a supermarket, were all perfect shapes, and perfectly uniform sizes. But, there's such a deficit of flavor. I was going to make something out of these, but now I'm glad I didn't have time before trying them.

This is making me sad, and a little bit angry. At what point did we as a society decide that we wanted perfect looking produce that wasn't perfect tasting? That seems to be a common theme at supermarkets for some reason.

Now, not all produce at supermarkets is bad. Onions, garlic, carrots and lettuce are usually perfectly fine (if a bit overpriced compared to some farmers markets). But, tomatoes and oranges fall into the same trap: as the saying goes, their beauty is only skin-deep.

As much as I hate wasting food, I don't think I can finish this apple. If I do, then the supermarkets win!

 

[Morning Glory]

The supermarkets here have 'wonky veg' which are considerably cheaper than the 'perfect' specimens. This is a relatively recent thing. There is definitely a drive to minimise food waste in the UK which is good.

 

[Mountain Cat]

These apples, as with any produce at a supermarket, were all perfect shapes, and perfectly uniform sizes. But, there's such a deficit of flavor. I was going to make something out of these, but now I'm glad I didn't have time before trying them.

This is making me sad, and a little bit angry. At what point did we as a society decide that we wanted perfect looking produce that wasn't perfect tasting? That seems to be a common theme at supermarkets for some reason.

As much as I hate wasting food, I don't think I can finish this apple. If I do, then the supermarkets win!

I know that feeling - apples sometimes, but tomatoes always. Well, any tomato not intended to make sauce out of. I do not buy or eat tomatoes 9-10 months out of the year.

I never really thought about it while growing up, but my parents would only buy roadside farm stand tomatoes, or serve and eat the ones they grew themselves. I went off to my first year at college, and I was boarding there. The first day (and this was in September, a good tomato season time of year) I loaded my salad plate down in the cafeteria with an awesome number of juicy (looking) red tomatoes. There might have been a leaf of lettuce I tucked in there somewhere.

Sat down to eat. Just... couldn't.

Cardboard. Just... couldn't. I tried to force myself to eat some, but the sheer amount I'd put on my plate - yes, I threw them all out.

This was back in the mid-seventies, so tasteless, cardboard, perfect-looking food was already a "thing".

 

[Duck59]

It's bizarre what people will and won't buy. Wonky veg is an obvious example, but here's another. I bought several jars of mango chutney from a shop in Edinburgh a while back. They were, as I recall, going for about 30 pence a jar rather than the two quid or so they were supposed to cost. Why was this? It was because they had French labels, i.e. they were for the French or Francophone market. The shop couldn't sell them - people didn't want labels in French. So rather than leave them to go past their best before date, they sold them for a fraction of the price.

 

[TastyReuben]

Answering the title, regular purchases for me are:

lettuces
Onions
Cherry tomatoes
Potatoes
Cucumbers
Radishes
Carrots
Peppers
Apples
Pears
Plums
Peaches
Limes
Lemons
Oranges
Pineapple
Bananas
Grapes
Herbs

Now, the quality - it's hit or miss. Kroger onions and potatoes are routinely horrible, half-rotting, mushy, black spots. Garlic is so far past it's prime I don't bother.

Most fruit is generally underripe and bland. I just accept that and when I want something like tomatoes, I get those from the farmers markets and apples I get from the orchards in-season. Plums and peaches are especially bad.

There's been a push here for less food waste by enticing people to buy more "ugly produce," but it seems to be the smaller, more younger-generation stores that focus on that, not the big national retailers.

 

[cookieee]

Last night we had fresh asparagus. It has been a good 3 years or so since I last ate fresh asparagus. I just could not get it to taste like I remembered asparagus tasting. That has been happening with so many foods lately. Do you all think it is the food or is it just me?

 

[Mountain Cat]

Another thing I do not buy at supermarkets (in addition to salad (non-sauce) tomatoes) is garlic.
Most of it sold in this country here comes from China, and while I do buy some products from China, where I can avoid it, I do so. Nothing against China per se, but they don't have the best track record for food safety issues. I stock up at farmers' markets, and grow some of my own. I get garlic powder from Trader Joes, which states on the label they source theirs from California.

I'm growing asparagus now, myself. Unfortunately it will take two or three more years before it matures enough that I can harvest enough for a few meals. Meanwhile, I still buy it at supermarkets, and I do seem to have the best cooking luck here with the thin stalks.

 

[Mountain Cat]

Answering the title, regular purchases for me are:

Now, the quality - it's hit or miss. Kroger onions and potatoes are routinely horrible, half-rotting, mushy, black spots. Garlic is so far past it's prime I don't bother.

Most fruit is generally underripe and bland. I just accept that and when I want something like tomatoes, I get those from the farmers markets and apples I get from the orchards in-season. Plums and peaches are especially bad.

There's been a push here for less food waste by enticing people to buy more "ugly produce," but it seems to be the smaller, more younger-generation stores that focus on that, not the big national retailers.

My own regular supermarket produce purchases: (Some I will be/am slowly getting to grow myself... but i'm not wholly there, yet!):

Lettuces - I do.
Onions - although mostly road side stands and farmer markets.
Potatoes - Yukon potatoes tend to retain the best quality overall, where ever grown. I grew a few this year.
Cucumbers - They're fine in supermarkets. I did grow them successfully at home prior to the move north... may re-succeed.
Peppers - I started growing these this year, but insufficient to meet my needs. Yet.
Apples - these can be hit or miss in a supermarket. I love it when I can find them in farmers' markets/road stands.
Pears - Bartletts are good. Boscs are bland and not worth it.
Plums - So much variety at farmers' markets!
Limes - Yes, too far north to produce much on my own.
Lemons - Yes, too far north to produce much on my own.
Herbs - I grow some, I buy others at the supermarket.

ADDING IN:

Artichokes (won't grow well in this area)
Avocadoes (won't grow in this area)
Asparagus - Will take time to have a real crop here at home, so yes, supermarket it is.
Turnips - for now.
Okra - for now.
Bok Choy - for now.
Other cabbages - for now.

no Krogers near me, but I do kinda remember them from my youth.

 

[TastyReuben]

Last night we had fresh asparagus. It has been a good 3 years or so since I last ate fresh asparagus. I just could not get it to taste like I remembered asparagus tasting. That has been happening with so many foods lately. Do you all think it is the food or is it just me?

I don't know how old you are, but as a person ages, it's very common to begin to lose the senses of taste/smell to a considerable degree.

My dad noticed a sharp decrease in his early 70's, and now that he's in his early 80's, he has virtually no sense of taste or smell. My mom isn't as bad as that, but she does have some loss. Both my in-laws said the same thing as they got older as well.

I can't remember the percentage, but there was a story on NPR not long ago about loss of taste in older Americans, and both the amount of loss and the number of people affected were pretty high. I know it surprised me.

Again, I don't know how old you are, but it's something to think about.

 

[cookieee]

I am glad you are a gentleman and not asking my age. lol But, it is hard to tell what is going on with food as you do get older. I guess I was hoping some of the younger people here would say they also were noticing the change in taste of a lot of our food. Especially pork. Since farmers are concentrating on producing leaner pigs, the taste in pork is definitely changing. Or is it?

 

[caseydog]

I buy almost all my produce in grocery stores. Where I live, I don't have many options. Cattle grow here, and the crops that grow here are for cattle feed.

The best grocery stores in Texas for produce are the Mexican Supermercados. The closest ones to me are both a 30-minute drive. Mexican-American families eat a lot of vegetables, and they are picky about them. Fiesta is a big chain that has good produce.

My local Kroger has decent produce, most of the time. A good meat department, too. There is another chain called Sprouts that is supposed to be better than the average grocery store for produce. They do have more variety, but not necessarily better quality.

One big problem is that we have become accustomed to being able to buy any vegetable, at any time of year. That's not how Mother Nature works. There are seasons for everything that grows in the ground. So, I don't expect to get tasty tomatoes in January.

As for apples, Granny Smith are at prime harvest season in late October in the US. The ones TLNG got must have been harvested too early.

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

As for apples, Granny Smith are at prime harvest season in late October in the US. The ones TLNG got must have been harvested too early.

I think that's true and I think that's the problem with a lot of produce - it's shipped all over and spends so much time in boxes on trucks and trains, and then on shelves in stores, they're picked before they're anywhere near ripe, gassed or whatever they do to them to make them sort of, kind of look ripe, and what we end up with are plums so hard I could shoot pool with them and blueberries so sour I could make lemonade with them.

 

[caseydog]

I think that's true and I think that's the problem with a lot of produce - it's shipped all over and spends so much time in boxes on trucks and trains, and then on shelves in stores, they're picked before they're anywhere near ripe, gassed or whatever they do to them to make them sort of, kind of look ripe, and what we end up with are plums so hard I could shoot pool with them and blueberries so sour I could make lemonade with them.

The worst is store bought peaches. I had a peach tree at my last house, and the peaches were PERFECT for about three weeks in June. That's it. If you pick them early, they are hard as apples.

CD

 

[rascal]

My wife says the best apples are organic ones she buys. She says they are heaven. We buy from road side stalls a lot. There's one on the way to our sons home, so we buy quite abut from there. Most is home grown. I'll get a pic next time of the stall.

Russ

 

[epicuric]

Generally things that I can't get at my local greengrocer/butcher/fishmonger. I prefer small local traders who know where their stuff comes from, and can be a good source of advice. Supermarkets for everything else, sadly.