La puce wrote:
Alan Holmes wrote:
"Sacha" wrote in message
.uk...
This is a very long shot but is there a preferred type of apple
that is grown in the Dordogne region of France? My stepson
bought
some from a market stall and says they were one of the best
types
of apple he's ever tasted.

I'm absolutely flabbergasted, my experience of french apples is
that
they are not even suitable for the compost heap, I have never ever
found a french apple which tastes of anything.

Why do you think Tarte Tatin is the best apple tart in the world if
not for the apples used? It's not done with 'cooking apples'. And
the
Normandie cider then? It's the bestest in the universe )

It's not so much that the French don't know how to grow good apples:
their best f&v beats most of ours; but the mass-produced ones they
send for mass sales are garbage because of the methods of production.
Young small trees with small root systems, heavily irrigated, fruit
picked too soon, kept in cold storage: you just can't get quality
that way. (Who knows? -- there may even be Dutch tomatoes and peppers
you can eat, but if they exist, nobody's exporting them.)

--
Mike.