I’m sure this has been discussed in one way or another but I couldn’t find a thread that focuses on it.
I planted a white gold cherry a few years ago and thanks to Scott’s spray schedule I got a decent crop for the first time this year. Cherries are among my favorite fruit from the grocery (especially Bing which I’ve heard is a challenge in the northeast) but I’m somewhat disappointed. My cherries aren’t bad but I’d say they’re probably not as good as the Bing from the store. Is this due to variety ? It’s not like I can really try those cherries in advance. I also had a black gold that would have fruited this year but my dogs basically destroyed.
I did have a couple of white lady and contender peaches last year and they were miles better than anything from the store.
My strawberries and raspberries are also much better than anything from the store plus with raspberries I get black and purple (and hopefully yellow soon) varieties that aren’t easily found in stores.
I’ve had really great store bought apples, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, and strawberries, though they’re usually not that great from the store, especially out of season. However I’ve never had a great fig from a grocery store. They’ve ranged from terrible to OK/nice.
Stone fruit in general are just no good in the grocery. Plums and peaches rarely have any flavor. Apples can be very good, pears may be, and citruses can be good. But stone fruit just about never. (That’s here in Montana.)
Here in North central Va peaches hands down. I really detest store bought peaches having grown up having the chance to eat orchard peaches.
I would add tomatoes to that if you’re including garden crops since there is again no real comparison between the flavorless mealy things the supermarkets carry and a vine ripe heirloom fresh from the garden.
Strawberries aren’t as good as fresh too, but i can tolerate them compared to the above two items.
I’m with Mark - @marknmt - on this one. So . . . “that’s here in Virginia” as well.
I think that the stone fruit is so fragile - and ripens within such a short amount of time - that ‘they’ have to pick it too green so that it will ship undamaged. And that ruins it for the rest of us, (who don’t live in California) !
However . . . the exception for me was Once Upon a Time at Sam’s Club they stocked some nectarines which came in a plastic bag . . . which were every bit as good as my home-grown ones.
You know… I might have to add apples to that list too. - not because they are drastically worse quality like in the case of peaches, but because they are so same-y in the stores.
Having now tried a few dozen heirloom varieties that taste very different from the “Delicious”, Pink Lady, Granny smith, Gala, Fuji lineup typically seen in stores, the difference in apples (as a species) range of flavors/textures as a whole is quite different even if the specimens of the same variaty may not be as drastically different between orchard and supermarket if you find them in the store.
But this is a very different driving reason than the peach/tomato/strawberry issue which I think others have already hit on exactly due to the challenges ripening, storing and transporting those fruit bring; in the case of apples its not a logistical/shipping issue, it’s a marketting issue where the people making the decisions on what to stock assume everyone wants the same boring 1 or 2 note apples to eat.
My biggest issue is finding a store that offers fruits near me. There’s not much options, just the generic fruits, if they have them. Want a specific apple? This week you only get to pick from two types of apples. Even Walmart is a bit of a haul to get to.
So I also focus on growing things I simply can’t buy at all, then I’d aim for stuff that’s better tasting secondly.
To keep it simple, a ripe Sungold tomato can’t be beat each summer.
Peaches and plums here. But I’ve never lived close to where apples or cherries are commonly grown.
(I’m one of the poor deprived souls who’s never had an apple right off a tree.)
I have to second peaches and tomatoes. Ripened fruit tastes like a different species. Add Mangoes to that list as well. I’ve never had a great supermarket Mango…
I agree apples have a lot of interesting varieties. For example I love a good Williams pride in August. I live in NY and the more upscale grocery stores do have a fairly good variety of apples though definitely not the more esoteric ones. The big chain stores just have gala, honeycrisp, Fuji, red delicious (perhaps the most disgusting apple of all time , but it looks nice) and Granny Smith. The upscale one also has crimson crisp, cosmic crisp, rubyfrost, evercrisp, snapdragon and a couple others. I’m sure in many areas you won’t be able to even find these
I grow tomatoes as well and that’s a huge difference (I almost never eat store bought tomatoes), cucumbers are pretty nice fresh too. Sugar snap peas, if you count them are also much better fresh as they lose their crisp texture very fast.
I’ve literally never had a good apricot from the store, but they don’t do great here. Plums are okay but are hit or miss. They’re often somewhat firm. And sometimes when they’re soft, it’s due to mild spoilage as opposed to being truly ripe. Oddly enough pluots, for the brief period they are in season, are better from the store than either plums or apricots
After having them fresh from the tree and other varieties outside of commercial varieties, i haven’t been able to finish a store bought in a long time.
Passion fruit, they’re never picked ripe in the store i feel like.
Peaches were my gateway gardening drug.
Raspberries, I’ve had a batch from driscolls that came with ticks from Costco earlier this year.
I routinely get good mangos from the grocery store. Of course varietal types are better but it’s not the worlds of difference which stone fruit is. I’d say a grocery store peach/plum is basically inedible, whereas home grown they are some of my favorites. But maybe I get lucky from the grocery store as during mango season harris teeter usually has them for 1-1.25$ and are very good when allowed to counter ripen. I have had terrible mangos from the store but those are between say October-may so I just don’t buy them unless it’s summer.
Peaches and Pears are very bad most of the time from the store. Since I am no longer able to grow fruits’ except sweet lemons and Meiwa kumquats’ I just do with out the pears and buy peaches from the orchard. .
In my very limited experience, stone fruit such as plouts and plums, apples and citrus. My unknown variety mandarin tree produces the best mandarins I’ve ever eaten. and it is not even close. I don’t buy store citrus anymore because it just leaves me disappointed. Same thing with my flavor king pluot.