Blandness

I had eaten my fill for the day when Stephen asked me if I would like some peaches. Golden Queen peaches have always been my favourite tinned fruit and the fresh variety even better, only surpassed by cherries. Of course, I said yes. However, I was disappointed at the blandness of the fruit. If I had shut my eyes, there is no way I would have been able to tell what I was eating, although their shape may have given them away. They certainly didn’t taste like the fruit that I love so much.

However, in saying that, I have noticed that many of the different brands are much the same these days – whether it is their drive to reduce sugar in their product or picking the fruit too early, but these, in many cases certainly don’t taste how they used to. Watties used to be my go-to brand in the past, but now my favourite for peaches is Oak. I am not sure what brand we ate last night, but I will make a mental note not to buy them again when I find the tin they came in.

Back in 2009 when I did my massage training, I lived on an organic orchard in Havelock North, that area being the home of Queen peaches and other fruit. The orchard had a row of the peach trees and I enjoyed the fruit immensely. What was alarming though, was news I heard about the apples. This particular orchard had Granny Smith apples, having not modernised their business with the newer varieties. The fruit was worth virtually nothing and the only market was for juicing, or puree, which paid a low price. However, it is what the company did with these that caused alarm. Apparently, they imported cheap apple pulp from China and mixed it with our fruit. So those mothers, buying puree for the babies, believing in the New Zealand brand, were actually buying a product which could have held any number of pesticides or other residues that we ban here in New Zealand. It really does pay to read the small print on the tins.

Going back to the Queen peaches, when we lived in the Hokianga, the trees grew wild on the sides of the roads. These had a different taste and were smaller than the commercial varieties, but tasty, just the same. I had several trees on the farm I lived on and these were good too. I have planted two peach trees here, but despite spraying with copper, they have both died. I do know they grow well, because a neighbour, a few blocks along, had a large tree, but my attempts have been unsuccessful. When I first moved up here, the fruit shop in town used to get bins of them in in February or March and I was able to buy big bags relatively cheaply, but I haven’t seen any for the last few years and the yellow peach brand they do sell isn’t Golden Queen, rather a variety that doesn’t taste as good as my favourite one.

And of course, with Cyclone Gabrielle wreaking havoc in the Hawkes Bay, we may have a shortage in the future. It is a shame my own peach trees didn’t take. I have just been on the internet to check whether I needed to cap Golden Queen and a Facebook advertisement came up for an Otago orchard that delivers right to the door. I have screen shotted that as it may just be my answer to accessing my second favourite fruit next year.