What’s the Deal With Fruit?

Let’s talk about fruit for a second. I don’t know why, but it’s on my mind right now. There are so many kinds of fruits, it’s staggering. As an American, I grew up knowing the names of most mainstream fruit. Bananas, oranges, blueberries, cherries, apples, and so many more. I’ve always been a fan of good fruit, but when I moved to Thailand to do missionary work I discovered so much more fruit. Fruit that felt strange and exotic. Fruit that always tasted fresh and would leak juices, sometimes at the slightest touch.

Fruit like the mangosteen, durian, dragon fruit, and rambutan all held my interest, but there was so much more. Little orange fruit that only appeared once a year for a few weeks, fruit that reminded me of hard grapes with an outer shell, fruit that held strange shapes and flavors. So many types of fruit that I cannot remember all their names. It’s fascinating.

I think many first world countries forget the world’s variety. We’ve found some of the best tasting, and discovered ways to farm them. We’ve changed certain fruit so that it can be globalized and sent around the world without spoiling. That means we often get fruit that is nothing like the true ripe fruit.

Oranges are an excellent example. You can walk into a grocery store any time of the year and find oranges. I’ve always disliked those oranges though. They lack juice and flavor. I’ll still eat them from time to time, but they’re only shadows of what they could be. I first realized this when I had my first orange from a truck. In my town, when it’s propper orange season, you can find several trucks on the side of the road selling oranges from far away farms. The fruit is large, round, and plump. Upon peeling it, you instantly feel a difference. The color, the flavor, even the texture are all much more full. It’s as though those oranges have captured the vivid imagination of a child and turned it into a fruit.

I wish we had more fruit with easy access, but it isn’t always possible. For example, I live in a desert. Most fruit won’t grow very well here. The fruit that can be grown takes water, and it feels irresponsible to use water like that in the desert. That’s okay though. For now, while I live here, I’ve learned to accept good fruit for what it is: a pleasant novelty to be enjoyed while traveling.