I can’t believe more people haven’t said blueberries. I have a lot of Korean supermarkets where I live so I have access to a very wide variety of decently priced, delicious fruit. But even here, the blueberries are very bland compared to what I can grow.
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I’ve been visiting local stores and trying a lot of fruit recently. In my area at least I feel there is a lot of good fruit in stores.
There are also a lot of more exotic fruits I’ve tried which I feel really haven’t lived up. They’re either too weird or travelling to far to be good. I found some cherimoya in a grocery store that was hard to eat. Sometimes it’s hard to really know what a fruit is supposed to taste like.
I’ve never seen figs in a grocery store, and only recently ate a persimmon for the first time. I’m interested in growing both.
For me I think I’ve found that the achievement of growing my own always adds a lot to the flavor.
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OMG TNhunter homegrown green beans are so much better than store bought. Blue Lake pole picked before they are as big around as a pencil. Sweet!
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Apricots and apples
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Not that I can grow them, but a properly tree ripened mango is worlds different than what you can buy in a store.
I would definitely say it depends on personal preference, but personally I’ll probably never buy another blackberry or raspberry from the store. Strawberries are usually pretty bad in my area too. I’ve jokingly said I wouldn’t even know I liked any fruit at all if I only ate local grocery fruit.
Store blueberries are usually pretty bad, but I’ve occasionally gotten a good pack. Grapes are a personal taste matter. I far and away prefer my concords, muscadines, and even wild muscadines to the store seedless grapes. It isn’t even close for me. The wife likes store grapes more. Two caveats. 1 if any of those are in season, we tend to either have home grown or buy from a local farm. Maybe the grocery blackberries are good too in July, I’ll never know.
I do like the pluots I’ve been getting recently though, and from what I’ve read here I shouldn’t expect to grow my own in the humid southeast. Bananas I buy a lot, but mostly because they’re a cheap snack and I’m a cheapskate.
Figs I’ve never seen in store. I did buy some from the guy set up beside me at a farmers market this year because mine aren’t acting right. Those were good, but not typical grocery store fare.
Jujube, medlar, quince, Che, goumi, mulberry, honeyberry and pawpaw, never seen for sale.
I’ve occasionally seen Asian persimmons, never American and I’ve never actually bought any. Eating a hard persimmon feels like a prank one falls for as a young child lol. I wouldn’t want to waste several dollars on a persimmon I might not like. Better to spend $$$ shipping trades for Scion and countless hours grafting, planting and tending trees and waiting years to find out if I like them. Oh the irony of the fruit growing addict.
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Yeah, the cherry industry does a good job of getting cherries to market quickly and its a fruit that holds its texture well when refrigerated.
There has been an effort in the industry to develop fruit varieties that sweeten a lot while still firm- sometimes by removing the acid from fruit, which doesn’t usually work for my palate unless brix gets very high, or it is something like cherries or plums where brix are high to begin with.
Because of this effort, I have, in the past, found high quality “plums” in stores under the name pluots (when they aren’t harvested too early), but otherwise, plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines are about the most improved off my trees compared to store bought. Yeah, and figs, of course. A ripe fig is as poor a shipping fruit as there is. They really don’t get fully sweet until they are soft.
I don’t understand why plums are not picked sweeter because they don’t have to be pluots to get sugar while still firm. The growers in CA tend to give their fruit too much water and somehow manage to often produce mediocre fruit when their climate allows them to get very high sugar. It is the idiocy of the industry, IMO, or, at least the short-sightedness. The American public is drawn to a high level of sweetness so higher brix would likely vastly increase sales and, in the process, maybe reduce obesity and diabetes in this country. The sugar in fruit is sequestered in a way that stops it from triggering sugar spikes in our blood. It also helps us lose weight because it makes us feel fuller than the calories it contains because of its relative bulk to calorie ratio.
All this said, if you live in an area where you can grow a wide range of fruit and succeed at doing so, you won’t want to buy anything from stores that you can grow yourself. All of it will taste better to you because you can harvest at exactly the right time and grow the specific varieties that most appeal to you. .
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Apricots have to be my worst store-bought experience. But, some peaches are horrid, too. Look beautiful, but are dry and mealy inside.
I quit buying apricots from the grocery and big-box stores. All tasteless. That’s why I was so anxious to try to grow some - to see what the difference could be.
Bottom line - if it doesnt’ smell like a real peach, or nectarine, or apricot - I don’t buy it.
I’ve been burnt so many times - with buying so much fruit - that now I put it in “the baby seat” of the cart and try a couple as I walk around. (Cherries, berries, cherry tomatoes).If it doesn’t impress me - I return it to where I picked it up. It feels ‘criminal’ . . . but, I’m not wasting any more $$$$$ on junk.
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Probably has a lot to do with location. For me you can’t buy good figs or really good peaches consistently.
The Louisiana grown strawberries are excellent in the stores or from roadside sellers but the season does not last long. California strawberries are usually quite good here also. I don’t buy peaches from the store because they look good but have no taste. The peaches grown around Ruston La are great quality when you can get them, not many orchards left in that area.
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