Wild vs Cultured Fruit Tastes

[Mr Skeptic]

What are people's experiences with regard to wild fruits and the specially bred fruits that are normally farmed? Which do you like better, and why? If you've eaten both wild and cultured strains of fruit, compare them.

 

For myself:

Guavas: Wild guavas taste much better; cultured ones are much larger but taste like crap

Mangoes: Wild mangoes have more flavor, but are smaller and have a juicy/fibery texture (that's a bad thing, the fibers get stuck in your teeth); cultured ones are larger, have better more solid texture, and still taste pretty good.

Bananas: smaller but slightly better taste, less yellow and spoil quicker

Oranges: had just the one tree growing in my yard, they were fewer and greener looking but tasted incredibly sweet, about the same size.

Grapes: not sure if they were "proper" wild grapes, incredibly tiny and more acidic, stronger but not necessarily better taste, mostly skin and seeds; cultured ones are much larger and all sorts of delicious

[iNow]

Doesn't that sort of depend on a) where the wild fruits were grown and what environmental conditions they experienced, and b) where the cultured fruits were grown and how they were cultured.

 

I must say that I don't think there's enough info to address your question, but I might just be being a hard ass.

[Mr Skeptic]

Just assume that both trees are healthy. For most strains the different growing conditions will probably have far less of an effect than the actual strain.

[iNow]

I do not believe that assuming the tree is in good health offers anything substantial to the parameters of your question. Flavor is greatly impacted by environmental conditions and what is being absorbed in the roots.

 

An easy example of my basic point is orange trees in Florida. They taste better in Florida than in other parts of the country because of the soil and weather conditions. Also, if it was a cold winter, the oranges tend to be sweeter, and it has very little to do with the vague idea of "tree health."

 

Do you follow my reasoning on this? It's not the natural versus cultured distinction that matters... not at all. The flavor of the produce depends only on strain and environmental inputs. It's a bit like nature/nurture for fruit.

 

 

If you think cultured fruit doesn't taste as good, it's not because it was "cultured," it's because of the conditions the people who cultured it setup... conditions which can be adjusted and improved.

[Mr Skeptic]

Hm, I think my vocabulary is a bit broke. I'm trying to compare the trees by genetics, not any other factors. Certainly the growing conditions are going to have some effect, but no matter what soil you grow eg a wild mango in, its flesh will still have a liquidish consistency as compared to the "tame" strains which have a solid consistency.

[Bignose]

Well, there are many reasons the varieties that have been cultured are the ones that were picked. Some of them have been mentioned -- the variety that grows best in the given conditions is probably the biggest one. The variety was picked because it was the one that gave the largest or best fruits consistently. Consistently can mean a lot of things, too -- most resistant to disease, most resistant to pests, etc. Lots of variables there, but don't think that taste was discounted either. Obviously if the fruit tastes better, then more will be sold or sold for a higher price, and that's a considerable factor, too.

 

On a similar note, in terms of corn and soybean farming these variables can be exceptionally detailed. With the GPS systems in use today, the farmers can get a pretty good map of the soil conditions over the span of their land. And with the different soil conditions, different varieties of corn may be best on different parts of the acreage. Or, different fertilizers or pesticides may be better or needed on different parts of the land. The days of just buying one type of seed are gone, the farmers trying to maximize profits today keep records and plant many different varieties of seed. Then, during harvest, again the GPS systems are used to accurately measure how each area did. Telling the farmer what varieties worked and what didn't and suggesting improvements for next year. Living in Iowa, I know that this is the state of modern corn and soybean farming, but there is no reason to think that any other type of farming is any different.

[drochaid]

Was this a double blind test?