the hidden world of table grapes

We find ourselves in Central Coast, visiting vineyards in the heart of California's fruit farms and learning all about the various varieties of table grapes. As far as we could tell, what you found in your supermarket were really only 3 types grapes; green, red or black (either with or without seeds). But as we learned on this trip, this was just easy marketing for the average consumer.

These seedless black grapes are actually called Autumn Royal.

They have a thicker, chewier skin and an intense grape juice-like sweetness to them.

These red grapes are called Big Globe or Red Globe.

They are meaty, have seeds, and are characteristically bigger and rounder than your average red seedless grape. Apparently these are the most popular variety to be shipped to Asia.

These red seedless grapes are called Krissy.

Thinner skin, good crunch (especially when we sampled them right off the vine), and a generally good snacking grape.

Ever wonder why fresh grapes have a dusty look to them when you pull them out of the bag? Well that shows you there has been very minimal handling of the fruit when it is cut from the vine, carefully weighed and inserted into its plastic packaging, and then packed into Styrofoam boxes. We learned that table grapes are picked and packed immediately on the field. A constant stream of trucks will then rush these packed boxes to a cooling warehouse where they will await shipping. As you can imagine, this is very labour intensive and requires staff with skilled expertise to harvest and prepare the grapes for maximum flavour, quality and quantity. This is also all done under very sunny and hot (85-95F) temperatures.

Do you know what shattering means when it comes to table grapes? It's when you lift a bunch of grapes and some of them fall off the stem. The more that fall off, the greater the shatter. A buyer will randomly check a crate of grapes for their shatter before committing to a shipment. This crate of green seedless grapes was rejected because there was too much shattering upon inspection and they were already showing signs of dehydration because of the brown discolouration in the stems.

These green seedless grapes may look very average, but they are actually a very special variety called Cotton Candy. And they're named that because they actually smell and taste like cotton candy! Intensely sweet and fragrant because of its high sugar content with less crunch than your regular, tarter green seedless.

And these odd looking black grapes are special too because of their elongated shape. They're not widely available yet, but taste like a regular black seedless.

They're called Moon Drops and you get quite a lot of grape in one bite.

stone fruit production

Kingsburg, California is where you'll find many of the world's largest producers of peaches, nectarines and pluots.

Being here was like watching a live episode of Unwrapped (but about fruit) unfold in front of us.

The fruit is cleaned and sprayed.

Quality, weight checked, sticker stamped.

 And then packed into boxes and crates to await shipping.

These pluots are all destined for Asia. The dusty look on them is called "bloom". The pickers and packers try to preserve this bloom by handling them as little as possible. The dustier it looks, the better the bloom, and hence greater the demand.

Chances are that if you ate a Californian peach, nectarine, or pluot this month, it was packed here.

nuts grow on trees

Summer break and we're off to California to check out some fruit orchards and farms. On our way, we see many almond and pistachio orchards.

Although we know that almonds and pistachios are tree nuts, it never really occurred to us that they actually grow on trees like fruit.

But they do and it was really interesting and cool to see.