Favorite Fruits
Top Five is a show where the hosts categorize, rank, compare, and stratify everything… from cars to gadgets to people and movies. From stuff that is hot, and things that are not nearly as interesting – it’s Top Five.
We need to eat healthy a lot more often than we do, but the blossoms are on the trees, and it’s only a matter of time before fresh fruit floods our palates.
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10 Comments
You just can’t beat a nice crisp apple
This is tough. I could easily do a top twenty, but here goes.
5.(Tie) Pomegranates. This would be higher on the list, except it takes a day and a half to get the arils out.
5. Cantelope. I could eat an entire melon at a sitting.
4. Bananas. The potassium is good for combating headaches. Also, you can refrigerate bananas to keep the insides from getting mushy. It only works for a couple of days and it will turn the outsides black.
3. Apples. Easily my most-eaten fruit.
2. Strawberries. Dip them in a weak vinegar solution and they’ll keep in the fridge for a couple weeks. In theory at least, strawberries don’t last that long around me.
1. Blueberries. Not only are they delicious and super-good for you, they also make my poop green. Unfortunately, I can only get good ones for maybe half the year, then I have to make do with frozen berries.
One thing I really enjoy about Top Five is the personal anecdotes–Rodrigo’s stories of his childhood in Mexico and Stephen’s orchard memories made me want to share my Top Five fruits from South Georgia
5. Blackberries–in the early summer, the berry bushes here swell with blackberries. The best part is how you can “customize” your taste. They are edible and sour when the fruit turns red, and gradually sweeten as they darken. The sweetest ones are the blackest ones, the ones that almost pop when you pick them.
4. Pomegranates-the same soil conditions that give us Vidalia onions also gives us two types of pomegranate flavors-the same tree can yield sweet or tart fruit depending on the ground. Annoying to serve, but there are gadgets in the produce aisle that make it easier.
3. The rare and amazing mayhaw. Imagine a fruit about the size of a crabapple. The trees grow on the banks of rivers here in Georgia. In the summer, when the water levels drop, the mayhaws fall into the water and collect in still parts of the river. You scoop them up and can enjoy them raw, but they explode with awesomeness when you make a jelly out of them. Folks who eat mayhaw jelly crave it when stores get low.
2. The Georgia Peach. It needs no descriptor.
1. The scuppernong is the king of grapes. Imagine a variety of grape that is thick-skinned, with thick sweet fruit. You can peel them, pop them open, or eat them skin and all. Purely awesome. If you have heard of muscadines, scuppernongs are the green/white ones while muscadines are purple….
Boy do I love a list!
Here are my Top 5 favorite fruits:
5. Apple: I love the variety and they remind me of my favorite season, Autumn.
4. Mango: It’s so difficult to judge ripeness. I often cut them to early out of excitement, or wait too long until they get funky. Get them just right, and it’s like ambrosia. Had my first one as an adult. Canned version is not very good.
3. Pumpkin: Great for both decorating and eating! Certainly reminds me of my favorite season, Autumn, and one of my favorite holidays, Halloween.
2. Blueberries: Only the Wild Maine Blueberries. All others are imposters! Would possibly make a Top 5 food list.
1. Avocado: Had my first one as an adult. I buy them almost weekly now, and I’m starting to get the timing down for ripeness. I try to buy them firm, since I don’t usually eat them right away. A perfectly ripened one IS ambrosia. A great substitute for mayonnaise. They would certainly make my Top 5 food list!
Just off the list:
Strawberry
Lime
Pineapple
Pear
Cantaloupe
Banana
5 pear I started eating these a few months ago and have grown on me…
4 tangerine not orange or sac
3 pineapple
2 grapes would be number one but the mess with some meds and when mixed give me headache and yet still no 2
1 apple’s red and crispy to eat only
green and slushy ones we cook with
pink lady’s are the apple of choice pink lady’s are many things of choice
My list is wholly based on the fruits my family grew on our small Western Washington land. Not to brag, but the pacific northwest is the finest land in the world from May to September. 70 degrees, crystal blue skies, and a harvest to bring in.
5. Salmonberry – this is a PNW native, and a bit of an acquired taste. It looks like a pale golden raspberry, with a distinct bittersweet taste. You have to find a bush with good flavor, but nothing so much reminds me of home. As a bonus, they have very showy purple flowers which attract a horde of humming birds.
4. Asian pear – combines the subtle flavor of the pear without the easily-bruised skin and mushy texture. Some people complain that they’re too gritty, but I love the crunch of a good asian pear.
3. Plums – every Fall we had a king’s bounty in plums. Even after all the birds and raccoons had taken their share, we would get 60 lbs (at least) of the ripest, juiciest plums you ever tasted. They say smell is the sense most intrinsically link to memory. I can still smell the thousands of plum blossoms in the air every Spring.
2. Huckleberry – blueberry’s wild cousin. One of the best parts of hiking in the Summer is reaching the former snow fields and avalanche chutes, now alpine meadows covered in fields of wild huckleberry.
1. The humble Apple – the working man’s fruit. It doesn’t matter what kind so long as it’s not red delicious. Washington is famous for its apples, but the fruit is actually tricky to grow west of the mountains – there’s so much rain your crop can easily rot on the tree, and apple maggots wreak havoc. We had Jonagolds and some sort of Gala crossbreed (I can’t remember what), but each Fall the branches were heavy with fruit – each wrapped in nylon stockings to keep the maggots out.
5. Persimmon or sharon fruit: When I decided to stop eating sugar a couple of years ago, persimmons were a lifesaver. I spent the fist weeks dreaming of chocolate cakes and blueberry pies, and the only way I got through it was by eating persimmons.
They are a pretty good substitute for candy – very sweet, with an almost marzipan-like taste. Nowadays I usually think they’re too sweet; but I still buy them occasionally, if I’m feeling especially sorry for myself.
4. Swedish apples: Here in Sweden, we have two basic categories of apples. The imported ones, which taste like cardboard, and the Swedish ones. I survive from January until August on the cardboard variety, until the good kind finally arrives. The best ones are rather small, very juicy, and packed with flavor. I eat at least one of these every day, while they are available.
3. Mango: I recently discovered how much I love this fruit, simply because they were on sale at my local store. They started appearing at the afternoon tea table, and pretty soon I was hooked.
Just like persimmon, it’s sweet and almost melts on your tongue. Properly ripe, cut into slivers, I could eat mango forever. Of course, I couldn’t really afford to, since they’re not on sale anymore, but still…
2. Strawberries: Ever since I was a kid, we have had strawberries for dessert from Midsummer onwards. Together with some whipped cream, they are absolutely heavenly! But I also love just buying a box from a stand and eating them as snacks. They are just so fresh and tasty, and really feel luxurious to me.
1. Wild strawberries: Not at all the same thing as number two. Wild strawberries can not be found in shops – you have to find and pick them yourself. They are sort of like concentrated strawberries – tiny, but with so much flavor! Everybody loves them here, and it’s a rare treat if you find some. In fact, we even have a word for ‘special place’ or ‘favorite spot’; smultronställe, which literally means ‘wild strawberry place’.
As in “I don’t really like this town, but I’ve found a few wild strawberry places”.
Conclusion: Wild strawberries are awesome!
I don’t know if this is true of the wild strawberries in Sweden, but southern-facing avalanche chutes and ski slopes in Summer are a great place to find the alpine varieties.
That may be true here as well – I’ll be sure to check if I’m ever on a ski slope in summer :)
Darn it!! I wrote a long-detailed list of my top 5 fruits but then clicked on the wrong button and lost it all!!! So here’s the short version:
5. Bananas – Good breakfast or desert
4. Grapes – Tasty and juicy but troublesome if I eat too many of them
3. Peaches and nectarines – I don’t understand how these can be the same species, but anyways. I like them both
2. Pineapple – Hated it as a child because I only had had canned pineapple. Loved it once I tasted the ‘real’ fruit
1. Apples – We wouldn’t have lasted one our in paradise if I had been Adam
Not in the list but good anyways:
Apricot
Lemon
Blackberry
Quince
Mamey – I tried this while on Peru this last summer. Loved it