In nature, everything is eaten close to where it grows. Where its freshest and when it’s at its best.
Then humans started trading food around the globe. Food has become a “commodity”. The word implies it’s all the same, that it can be stored and transported as needed.
That’s true for iron ore, but not for food. All food is slightly different, even if it started with identical seeds, depending in where it was grown and the conditions that growing season.
Fruit is a living thing, that changes every day as it grows and continues to change even after it has been picked. It’s best picked in the final stages of ripening, when natural sugar levels are starting to peak and juice is forming.
Most fruit, if it’s picked too early, will never ripen properly. No matter how long it sits on your windowsill.
Yet that’s what the “commodity” approach does. Fruit is picked early to allow for time for it to be stored and driven to remote markets.
A lot of foods are easily damaged in transit. The thin skin of stone fruit starting to blush into ripeness is delicate. Bouncing it around in a truck for a couple of days will ensure it never reaches you at its best.
Fortunately for us Western Australians, our south -west has some of the best fruit growing soils and climates in the world.
WA-grown stone fruit can be left on the tree for longer, to ensure it matures properly.
It travels only a short distance, so there’s less damage. It doesn’t have to be treated with chemicals to artificially slow its ripening.
And it can be in your hands as fast as the day after it was picked.
When we’ve got the best the world can offer, right here, why would you bother with anything else but WA-grown stone-fruit? It’s the best.