Our Favorite Fruits

a normal day for me includes (4.00 / 2)

an apple (or two) and either an orange, a blood orange, or a grapefruit right now. At least! When I'm at home, add blueberries to that (frozen). Depending on the season, I switch to stone fruits (peaches/plums/apricots/cherries), persimmons, guavas, and passionfruits. Those weren't even listed in the USDA data!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 09:09:32 AM UTC

Fruits (4.00 / 3)

My dad always has had fruit trees. When I was a kid he had peaches, prunes, an ornamental peach that had fruit the size of apricots and tasted like almonds, nectarines, 4 or 5 different types of grape including Muscat that tastes kind of like papaya, raspberries, figs and apples. Then the neighbor had a huge cherry tree that we used to pick out of. Another friend had a pie cherry.

Out here, we have an ever bearing raspberry, a 3 way cherry tree, two over producing apple trees, and an asian pear. I processed around 120 lbs of apples, cherries, and asian pears last summer. We also have blackberries, but most of those are more interested in producing seeds than juicy fruit. The goats sure like 'em though.

We have a couple of fig trees, persimon trees and a couple of paw paw trees, although those are too young to produce yet. But one of these days.....

Normal people scare me. But not as much as I scare them.....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 17:58:40 PM UTC

And again... (4.00 / 2)

My personal favorite tops the "Our Least Favorite" list at Number One.

Amazing that those numbers include fruit juice?!

But wow - that's pretty bad.  I've admitted before I don't really eat much fruit, or at least nowhere near as much as I know I should...but even I eat about 5 apples a week these days; and usually a melon a week and 3 or 4 peaches / nectarines / pears in season.  Have a couple of "sinner's oranges" (heh...) here right now, but they're from California.

The exception in my case, of course, is berries...I have no problem getting enough of them.  Blackberry, raspberry, strawberry.  Wanna try gooseberries some more this year...  

I have to buy twice as many pints of marionberries as I need at the farmers markets, because I always end up eating half of them on the bus on the way home!

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 19:33:00 PM UTC

I bet you that if you can find a similar chart for veggies, (4.00 / 2)

the humble carrot would just beat the potato by a hair's breadth.

Sic Transit Gloria Locavore!

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by: Asinus Asinum Fricat @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 20:24:28 PM UTC

Well, you're in luck... (4.00 / 2)

Jill posted Our Favorite Vegetables yesterday!

1. Potatoes: 0.557 (0.175 is as chips/shoestring potatoes)
2. Lettuce: 0.228
3. Tomatoes: 0.189
4. Onions: 0.077
5. Carrots: 0.062

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 20:29:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

consumption doesn't indicate favorites (4.00 / 2)

I love blackberries, but I don't consume them often because they're not in season long and they are expensive to buy frozen.

I love watermelon, but I try to only buy it local, when it is in season, which is short (in Iowa).

A lot of the fruits on the "least favorite" list seem on the expensive side, especially if you were buying them fresh out of season.

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by: desmoinesdem @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 20:25:36 PM UTC

Great point... (4.00 / 1)

I also eat as locally and seasonally as possible - so even though I prefer blackberries much more than I do apples, I do end up eating more apples than berries every year since local apples are available for a longer time here in Oregon and obviously hold much better fresh than berries ever can.

Wow, that was a confusing run-on sentence!

:)

But couldn't you also make a case that consumption could indicate favorites in certain cases...as in oranges, bananas and pineapple - which can never be available locally in 90%-ish of America?

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by: JayinPhiladelphia @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 20:42:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

berries, dates, kiwis (4.00 / 2)

I love many of the fruits in the lower category but I frequently don't buy them because they are very expensive.   I feel like price might be a big factor in many of those categories in the infrequently eaten list, along with seasonality, as things like apricots just don't transport well. Personally, blueberries are my absolute favorite fruit of all time, but they are never locally available where I live (you just can't grow them here). So even though I love blueberries I never eat them unless they are on major sale at the grocery store, which is infrequently. We can produce a lot of apples and stonecrops here so I eat more of those in season. So perhaps some of this data on infrequently eaten fruit has to do with availability (seasonal) and accessibility (price and also stocking in grocery stores.)

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by: Stephanie @ Thu Jan 08, 2009 at 23:29:46 PM UTC