Cooking
Have you ever noticed how the perfect fruit demands your attention? A run of the mill apple or banana is fine, benign even. But really spectacular fruit grabs you and doesn't let go. I hope everyone has the amazing experience of fresh, intensely flavored, sensual and almost overwhelming experience some day that Chip Brantley had when he first tasted a pluot. It changed his life. No kidding. The Perfect Fruit is his personal and journalistic investigation of this relatively recent stone fruit.
Barely into the first chapter I found myself inexplicably drawn to a local farmers market where I found the aptly named "flavor king." You have to admit, it is an awfully beautiful looking fruit. It tasted even better. Sweet, tangy, juicy, floral and complex.
The season for pluots is pretty much now over, but if you want to read a book about a most unlikely subject that will draw you in, much like a piece of perfect fruit, I wholeheartedly recommend The Perfect Fruit. Brantley covers the breeding, the marketing and flavor of the fruit. The book is well-written, with a strong attention to detail, it covers much of the business related to stone fruit but also the passion that drives fruit breeders to keep working on new hybrids all the time.
I was a bit skeptical about a whole book on pluots. But it's a book filled with interesting characters, almost dynastic families and the forces of nature. I found it fascinating, I hope you will too.
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These are Honeydew Nectarines. They are brought to you by the folks at the Ito Packing Company and according to the sign at Whole Foods, they are a cross between a nectarine and a Honeydew melon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any more details...
- Fizzy Fruit Responds
You may remember my concerns about a product called Fizzy Fruit, where fruits are juiced up with carbon dioxide to make them fizzier and—according to the article—somewhat sweeter. Adam Lindemann, an investor and strategist/executive for the...
Cooking
The Perfect Fruit: Book Review
Have you ever noticed how the perfect fruit demands your attention? A run of the mill apple or banana is fine, benign even. But really spectacular fruit grabs you and doesn't let go. I hope everyone has the amazing experience of fresh, intensely flavored, sensual and almost overwhelming experience some day that Chip Brantley had when he first tasted a pluot. It changed his life. No kidding. The Perfect Fruit is his personal and journalistic investigation of this relatively recent stone fruit.
Barely into the first chapter I found myself inexplicably drawn to a local farmers market where I found the aptly named "flavor king." You have to admit, it is an awfully beautiful looking fruit. It tasted even better. Sweet, tangy, juicy, floral and complex.
The season for pluots is pretty much now over, but if you want to read a book about a most unlikely subject that will draw you in, much like a piece of perfect fruit, I wholeheartedly recommend The Perfect Fruit. Brantley covers the breeding, the marketing and flavor of the fruit. The book is well-written, with a strong attention to detail, it covers much of the business related to stone fruit but also the passion that drives fruit breeders to keep working on new hybrids all the time.
I was a bit skeptical about a whole book on pluots. But it's a book filled with interesting characters, almost dynastic families and the forces of nature. I found it fascinating, I hope you will too.
- Watermelon Summer Smoothies Recipe
Recently Safeway invited me to visit a watermelon grower, Perry & Sons. Safeway has been working with Perry & Sons for 60 years and wanted to put a draw attention to their commitment to local growers. I learned a lot about watermelon, enjoyed...
- Anthony Boutard On What Makes Fruit Great?
One of the best presentations I got to attend at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference in Portland last month was a conversation between chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison and farmer Anthony Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm....
- Favorite Things: Yuzu
Does this ever happen to you? You read about some interesting ingredient, the next thing you know it ends up in your shopping basket. I'm sure it was Thy's post about yuzu that got me on the lookout for all yuzu related products. I spotted yuzu...
- Who Thinks Up This Stuff?
These are Honeydew Nectarines. They are brought to you by the folks at the Ito Packing Company and according to the sign at Whole Foods, they are a cross between a nectarine and a Honeydew melon. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any more details...
- Fizzy Fruit Responds
You may remember my concerns about a product called Fizzy Fruit, where fruits are juiced up with carbon dioxide to make them fizzier and—according to the article—somewhat sweeter. Adam Lindemann, an investor and strategist/executive for the...