Here is the latest collection of follow-ups and fruit thoughts.
In the e-mail of 2 Oct 2015 I discussed Moondrops, the oddball grapes shaped like Vienna sausages produced by The Grapery, which uses fancy names for its grapes such as Witch's Fingers, Cotton Candy, Sweet Surrender, and Gumdrop. The Grapery indulges in high-toned bragging about how good its grapes taste. On 12 Nov 2015 I bought some standard-looking red grapes from the Grapery that were labeled "Flavor Promise." They tasted the same as other red grapes of various brands that I had recently tried. Therefore, I am once again unable to confirm The Grapery's claims about the tastiness of its grapes.
On 12 Jun 2015 you read about the Mustard Museum. I learned that this museum has become a standard of comparison when I heard on National Public Radio, 7 Jan 2016, "If mustard has a museum, the bobbleheads deserve a hall of fame." You might want to check out this hall of fame's site. It provides the gift idea for this e-mail, namely bobbleheads (see picture below from this site). Many sites, such as this one, allow you to order a custom bobblehead, which is crafted from a picture. Think how flattered a gift recipient would be receive a bobblehead in his or her image. Bobbleheads have already caught on in my circle; Pepe and Dave Robinson both own Luis Tiant bobbleheads.
In the e-mail of 18 July you learned about a very expensive coffee that is made from coffee beans passed through the digestive tract of an elephant.On 8 Jan 2016, in an episode of the NBC program "Elementary," Sherlock Holmes refreshed himself with a brew of this elephant coffee. A grossed-out Watson refused the offer of a cup. The lesson from this and the previous paragraph is that you need to read Fruit Explorer e-mails if you are to fully understand NPR broadcasts or even network TV programs. (Do you think that the author of that episode of "Elementary" learned about the elephant coffee by reading the Fruit Explorer?)
On 1 Jan 2016 you read of Pepe;'s plan to plant a mamey seed indoors and grow a mamey bonsai tree. He has now planted the seed. If and when if comes up, you will hear. Recall that a mamey tree in the wild can grow to 140 feet.
I recently read, Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake, where on p. 85 of my paperback edition appeared the following sentence: "Sonia asks her father to buy her a slice of jack-fruit, which makes her lips itch unbearably, then swell to three times their size." I am gratified to see that the jack fruit (4 Aug 2014) has entered world literature. (This is the only book I own that is stamped, "For Sale in the Indian Subcontinent Only." Its original price when new was 395 rupees.)
Here is the latest installment of Celebrities and Fruit. On 4 Jan 2016 the website of the Boston Globe ran a story on the chef for Tom Brady (celebrated quarterback of the New England Patriots) and Gisele Bundchen (stunning supermodel). This chef seems to embrace every food fad; you can read this article to get a quick survey of current fads. In particular, he says, "Sugar is the death of people." (See the e-mail of 19 Dec 2016 for my view on this claim.) He spills the beans that Brady does not eat nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers) or mushrooms. The chef likes to use spirulina, which he terms a "super fruit." (Wikipedia describes spirulina as a cyanobacterium that is high in protein and which is complete but slightly less balanced than the protein of meat, eggs, and dairy; spirulina protein costs thirty times as much as the protein from these standard sources. Spirulina grows naturally in tropical and subtropical lakes. It was a major food source for the Aztecs, and NASA has considered it as a suitable food to be cultivated on long-duration space missions.) The question for this e-mail, however, is: What is the attitude of the Brady household toward fruit? The chef reveals, "The kids eat fruit. Tom, not so much. He will eat bananas in a smoothie. But otherwise, he prefers not to eat fruits." It looks like I will have to look elsewhere for a celebrity endorsement of fruit.
I have several times quoted or referred to Pliny the Elder (5 Nov and 25 Dec 2015). I had always pronounced this name with a long I as in "tiny." Carla corrected me; it is pronounced with a short I as in "tinny" (or "ignoramus"). As David Ellerman once pointed out, "The Achilles' heel of the autodidact is mispronunciation."
As you have read (3 Jul 2015), my favorite fruit is cherries. On 26 Dec 2015 Carla introduced me to cherries jubilee, a cherry dish I had never tasted before. This delight was perhaps my highlight of 2015. Below are two pictures from the Internet. The first shows cherries jubilee served in the traditional manner over vanilla ice cream, which is how Carla served it. The second picture shows the appealing variant of serving over both vanilla ice cream and shortbread.
Do you agonize over whether your fruit is ripe? Then you need a fruit firmness tester. A digital fruit tester "... can be used by research departments, universities, packing houses and farms to measure the firmness of almost any fruit - apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, melons and much more. Help improve your product's quality with quick and accurate firmness measurements, which are a commonly accepted maturity indicator." Don't get the idea that this is a joke. As one vendor states, "Fruit penetrometers are widely used by universities for fruit research and by fruit companies to make important business decisions." Digital fruit testers start at $299.99 (see the first two pictures below). If you are satisfied with an analog fruit tester, you can get one for a low as $129.99 (see the last two pictures below). Your party tip is to insure the success of your next party by using a fruit tester to make sure that the fruit you serve is perfectly ripe. Do you need a gift idea for the man who has everything? Give him a fruit tester.
Below is the latest Fruit Explorer art work, "Sticker Shock VIII." This contains PLU stickers of fruit I have eaten from 13 Nov 2015 to 5 Jan 2016. At the bottom you can see the first vestiges of this season's onslaught of large navel oranges, which will last for six months. #4012 refers to standard navel oranges and #3110 to cara cara navel oranges (8 Feb 2015). (The Internet has struck again. In many past e-mails I have referred you to the site that you can use to look up PLU codes and see what fruit or vegetable they represent. I just discovered that the link I have given you is now dead. Here is the new link. This new page has the advantage that it lets you start with a PLU number or a fruit name.)
Rick
