goods. One chap asked us what we did to the salads and veggies to make
them so much better than shop bought ones. I told him "It isn't what we
do to them, it's what we don't do, we just let them grow naturally"

I'd be surprised if you were growing the same varieties as the
mainstream commercial farmers sell to shops. Selecting commercial
varieties for long shelf life, uniform size and crop timing doesn't
leave much room for taste or texture.

One thing I like about Organic(TM) farmers is that they grow more
interesting minority cultivars that actually taste better.

Even the humble golden delicious apple can actually taste reasonable if
grown on a rootstock that isn't intended to pump them up big and
quickly. And properly ripened crops freshly picked for the table always
taste better.

All you say is true but on the subject of apples I've decided that our
cooler conditions mean longer maturing for the fruit which allows flavour to
develop. I could be wrong but I've tried Golden Delicious from all over the
world and they rarely taste of anything but slightly sweet water. When we
grew them they were small, green and often maggoty but they tasted divine.

It's not just GD, the other week, in desperation, I bought some Cape Granny
Smiths, an applie with a bite to it if ever there was one. If it's grown in
England. Had I been blindfolded I reckon I wouldn't have been able to
differentiate between it and a GD.

Mary

Regards,
--
Martin Brown