to make them so watery and insipid! Our golden queens are at that ready-to-bottle stage so I stewed a few for dessert tonight and what a difference from the tasteless things they put in tins nowadays. I was beginning to think my tastebuds were dying but no, these were just like the peaches I remember from my far off youth, it's not me at all.
mrploppy,
Feb 27, 7:30pm
Probably came from Australia!
t_naki,
Feb 28, 4:36am
Probably came from China.
Its lucky that we don't have country of origin labeling.
.jillybeen.,
Feb 28, 5:46am
I agree,golden queens are great this year, the weather being so dry has held the brown rot at bay.picking ripe off the tree awsome.Peach pies frozen for winter, and bottling too.I think watties process when not quite ready.They would have to.
donnabeth,
Feb 28, 7:55am
The last can I bought was packaged in NZ but the fruit came from South Africa. I also noticed the fruit was firm and tasteless.
rob_man,
Feb 28, 8:17am
Glad it's not just me, you start to worry sometimes. Our tree is doing exceptionally this year so I'd better make sure I beat the chooks to them.
venna2,
Feb 28, 8:24am
I hesitate before buying any summer fruit, fresh or tinned, as it so often turns out to be pale and tasteless. I wonder if it's partly because the fruit is picked before it's ripe!
mothergoose_nz,
Feb 28, 8:28am
the chinese fruit is horrible
rob_man,
Feb 28, 10:10am
I know there's an awful lot of forced ripening going on to make the fruit conform to picking schedules, I suspect that has a lot to do with it. I can't remember the last time I had a bought nectarine that was actually edible.
daleaway,
Feb 28, 10:55am
We really need that country of origin labelling - it's the big food manufacturers and the supermarket moguls who have our government under their thumbs and block them passing the laws that would enable us to see where our food is being imported from.
dms01,
Feb 28, 11:45am
stopped buying them from the NZ orchards. they get them from overseas where often substandard fruit is dipped in acid to remove blemishes blerrrk
brucet3,
Feb 28, 3:02pm
In a supermarket, the packaging stated "best while still firm". What a crock.
wayne472,
Feb 28, 4:03pm
Oh for the long lost days of Apricots,Nectarines, Peaches and Cherries that were grown in the lost Cromwell Gorge.
Now all but A memory!
venna2,
Feb 28, 5:36pm
At least I'm looking forward to my own feijoas being ready to eat. They're slowly but gradually growing on the trees.
donnabeth,
Mar 3, 6:45am
I'm still savouring the nectarine from Cromwell I had last night-it was sweet and golden and the juice ran down my arm. It was one of a bagful I bought over a week ago and they did originally start off firm, but had a red and gold skin so I knew they were going to be good.
.jillybeen.,
Mar 3, 6:53am
Plant the stones, 3-4 years pick your own,trees dont have to be expensive. If every one started to plant there own we would have no need for imported rubbish.
venna2,
Mar 3, 6:55am
That's great in theory but not everyone has enough space for trees. And as I'm in Wellington I doubt that I could grow apricots, even though I always throw the stones into the garden. My feijoas are doing well and I've had two plums from my young plum tree this year, but even lemon trees struggle in my garden.
stevee6,
Mar 3, 7:51am
It depends on the protection from quick changes in the weather. With lemon trees, give them protection from the wind, and mulch well under the dripline so they don't dry out fast. I've seen great lemon trees grown in Christchurch with that protection in mind. Apricots actually like cold weather in winter, so as long as the soil is good and they're adequately watered during their growing season, they'll do fine in Wellington.
gardie,
Mar 3, 7:58am
We have wonderful peaches this year from a self sown tree.Every time we eat one, we pop the stone into one of the myriad of cracks we have in our orchard. I have Watties peaches in my cupboards that taste like there is something wrong with them.Am putting off eating them!
tony473,
Mar 3, 10:16am
With tinned peaches I always tip in a pot and cook them for 5 minutes or so more, seem to be a lot better.
annies3,
Mar 3, 3:16pm
We had a marvelous apricot in Cambridge so why wouldnt one grow and do well in Wellington !
venna2,
Mar 3, 4:38pm
Well, Wellington is colder and windier than Cambridge as a rule. Having said that, I might buy one (from a plant shop, though, I probably don't have enough years left in my life to wait for it to grow if I try planting a stone) and see how it goes. Just in case .
Another point, though: Individual gardens in the same area can vary a lot. For instance, a friend and neighbour has a wonderful tamarillo tree with lots of fruit - it's in a sunny and sheltered spot. I simply don't have such a spot in my garden. My own tamarillo has never borne fruit and it dies off every winter.
splinter67,
Mar 3, 5:09pm
Aaaahhhh no they are still grown in HB and canned in hastings
mark_g,
Mar 3, 5:43pm
$6.99 for Hawkes Bay golden queen peaches in our local PaknSave - that's about $1.00 each! I've voted with my feet and refused to buy them.
But when returning home from a job in Napier I found a roadside stall in Fernhill, on the back road from Napier going south, and there were big beautiful peaches, nectarines and plums. Fill a bag for $5.00. The bags were about same size as the common apple bags you get in supermarkets.
The fruit were large, juicy and tasted fantastic. Not the artificially uniformly ripened blemish free crap we see in supermarkets. These were large, not perfectly shaped, had the odd blemish, varied in ripeness, and tasted fantastic. Obviously not grown by large commercial orchards for the big food chains. I don't know who these folk are that have the roadside stall, but I hope they keep it up for as long as I'm alive.
pickles7,
Mar 4, 6:55am
The peaches they process are not the same as they were years ago. They are larger and easier to process than the true, Golden Queen peaches.
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