In article , Mike Lyle mike_lyle_uk@REMO
VETHISyahoo.co.uk writes

It's not so much that the French don't know how to grow good apples:
their best f&v beats most of ours;

Hmm. Everything you say about mass production applies to the ones you
get in the supermarkets. Probably what you have in both countries is
that the majority of apples are mass produced and therefore pretty dire,
but the non-mass produced ones are good in both countries - their best
may beat most of our supermarket ones, but not, for example, home grown
ones.

That said, Coxes seem to stand up well to mass production (probably
becaue they are a late maturing apples that would in any case be picked
before ripe).

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.)


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"