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[-] The_v@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

The plant is still there and can process them but the demand has evaporated. The reason: Del Monte was fucking stupid.

Peaches are climacteric. When they ripen they naturally produce the plant hormone ethylene. This triggers a complex ripening process where aromas and volatiles are produced (aka flavor). It also causes rapid softening of the fruit and makes canning them much more difficult.

So what are clingstone peaches. These are peach varieties that have been selected for the down regulation of ethylene production and response. They are hard, sweet, but mostly flavorless, and do not separate from the seed (stone). They ship and process well because of their firmness but taste like shit.

So Del Monte produced good looking but shitty tasting product (extra tin can flavor) and the demand dried up over the years.

Why? Did this happen and why did they go bankrupt? They were allowed to become a regional monopoly.

[-] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 weeks ago

North America is so fucked with these horrible monocultures, it's simply ridiculous.

[-] Grabthar@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Can't say I blame them for trying. Selling larger, more robust, and flavourless varieties worked on us with both chicken and tomatoes. The first time I tried a garden tomato was eye-opening. Would love to track down one of the farms selling the old chicken breeds as well, but I hear those are pretty expensive.

[-] liimnok@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago

My heritage breeds grow slower and have less butcher weight than industrial farm raised chickens. The longer it takes to reach market weight the more feed I have to buy, so yeah, they're easily twice as expensive per pound. Its insane how cheap they're able to sell chicken. It gives people sticker shock when they see my price per pound. :(

[-] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Tomatoes have the largest difference in quality, people often think they don't like tomatoes until they taste good heirloom ones.

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Store tomatoes are bred for firmness.

The original cardboard tomato contained the rin gene. This completely shutdown the production of ethylene. These tomatoes never turned red until ethylene gas was applied externally.

These types fell out of favor when varieties with down regulated ethylene response and production were developed. These types will turn red but are always firm and mostly flavorless.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

So all of these trees are clingstone peaches and worthless for consumers?

[-] The_v@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Well consumers can eat them fresh, but they don't taste that good. They are slightly sweet with very firm flesh and that's about it. There's pretty much no peach flavor and often bitter flavors when you get close to the pit.

this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
22 points (100.0% liked)

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