When I was a kid i would come home and could smell me mum's salad she made for supper. It filled the kitchen. Celery , onions , radishes , carrots,even lettuce had a smell. And wow the taste of those tomato sandwiches she made. Onions would make you tear when you sliced them. today even the organic produce, forget the really commercial grade what ever it is …. you stuff your nose into the bowl and you can hardly smell anything. Kids and Teens today do not know what food tasted like or smelled like in the 60's and before. so why are organic foods not the same as the olden days? Like what happened, and please do not tell me i got old and my sniffer isn;t what it used to be… i have an excellent palate and my sense of smell is better than most…hearing ..whole other story…lol
Thanks for offering an interesting thought here. First off tho, I doubt that "organic" has any relevance here. (we science majors of course will tediously point out that DDT and PCB are organic, as is a diamond) The vegetables and fruit we get are produced for their industrial qualities, as in mechanical planting, harvesting, processing, shipping and long shelf life. As you know. My dad's way of putting it is that if you grew apple tress for the wood and then were surprised that you somehow didnt like the hard sour or mushy tasteless fruit, well, get a clue! Anyway, that is my guess about it. Maybe grow some "heirloom" tomatoes, see how those turn out? ( the squirrels sure liked them last time I tried, I didnt get any for myself...!)
That is part of it (as is the OP's old sniffer ). Just because it is organic does not mean that it is not a hybrid product in which flavor (and smell) are sacrificed in favor of larger or blemish free product. I spend a lot of money on heirloom seeds and the like. They usually are not as nearly productive as hybrids that are available.
ok so maybe i am putting too much faith in organic fruits and vegetables. there is this totally grass fed beef i buy, it's from the USA, and it tastes like beef when i was a kid. i've bought the heirloom tomatoes and still, not the same as when i was a kid.. there hs to be scientific reason for food tasting so bland. I used to know a lot of people from Ghana in the 80's. they all commented on our food looking superb but tasting like cardboard.
Maybe they harvest the fruits and vegetables much sooner now, before they're ripe. There is also a process called flash freezing, but I have no idea whether this process preserves flavor, along with the nutrients, or the ice acts like little daggers and destroys flavor by bursting all the plant cells and letting all the flavor drain out.
