this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Lord Of The Rings Memes
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there's a good reason we only imported a few of these sorts.
most of them suck ass
How so?
Non domesticated potatoes have high levels of toxic glycoalkaloids. Original potato recipes actually included clay to make them less toxic. I doubt these potatoes are toxic, but they may have been eaten with clay which people who aren't used to it would find unpalatable.
Alternatively, a lot of foods in their center of origin (the Andes for potatoes) have a lot of genetic diversity and can taste very different to the potatoes that have been hyper bred for flavor and shipped worldwide. There's some pretty awful tasting apples out there that are so astringent they make your mouth seize up.
1970s breeding for yield and storage gave the domesticated potatoes a bit more glycoalkaloids tho.
I see someone else also went scrumping (omenavarkaisiin) as a kid.
Apples are not "true-to-their-seed" plants, meaning if you want to refine with selective breeding, you need to use grafting instead of seeds. So given your username and that we're both on Lemmy, I just assumed from the quote that you've encountered apple trees which may have grown from seed instead of being planted (I assume planting orchards was like a fashion in the 30's or something) and thus ended up being quite shit.
The America "Johnny Appleseed" would've sowed trees that bore fruit which was pretty much only used for making cider, not for eating.
Also wild bananays are quite horrible looking
Haha I've had a few wild apples out and about in the US but nothing too crazy. There's a USDA orchard for genetic diversity and breeding of apples. They collect apples from central Asia for breeding stock. Many apples in the us are actually limited in their genetic diversity since only a handful of genotypes actually made it over. They collect genetic stock to introgress disease resistance when needed. And there are tours sometimes. You can find apples far worse than anything you'll see out and about the wilderness of the US. Some of them look more like large cherries than apples.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/geneva-ny/plant-genetic-resources-unit-pgru/apple-collection/apple-collection/
They don't advertise it here, but the orchard is in Geneva NY and they usually do one public tour every fall if you're interested in tasting the worst apples of your life :)
https://www.ars.usda.gov/northeast-area/geneva-ny/plant-genetic-resources-unit-pgru/docs/publictours-apple/
They also have some grapes and stone fruit.
Hopefully the USDA isn't hurt too badly in the coming years. I already have some old colleagues that have been laid off by the Trump administration. It's all I see on my LinkedIn feed right now.
The USDA does a lot of work maintaining plant genetic diversity. You can even request a bit of seed from them for different genotypes of almost any plant you can imagine if you give them a good reason and are a bit patient. But maybe not with the upcoming staff shortages.
https://www.ars-grin.gov/
I've only requested seed for academic research, but I think if you explain that you want seed for some backyard breeding they might give you some too.
Oh I assumed you were Finnish from your nickname, my bad.
Interesting post, thanks for the links.
I would love to go on a tour line that in Geneva, NY, but I don't have the money for flights to NY to see an orchard lol. I'd probably be more interested in just NYC to be honest but yeah. Would love to see both. And USA in general, but not currently a place I feel too inclined to visit. First off I argue kinda lot, I'd probably get shot (and that's not a dog on American gun policy but more an attempt to communicate what an obnoxious dick some people perceive me as)
I mean we're less than two months into his presidency and he is literally tearing down the entire system. I wouldn't be too shy to call it an actual coup pretty much. He has no intention or has he ever had any respect for any law, regulation or rule and he doesn't give a fuck about anyone and he's afraid of Putin. He's too dumb to be an obedient puppet for Putin, but he is a clown who Putin definitely has strong influence on.
Haha, no, my cat is named Finn.
And if you go to the right part of the us, then you'll find arguing without shooting each other is a past time and greatly welcome. But, don't go to the us. It has beautiful nature but not for long and not much else to offer.
Does the cider taste good at least?
Depends on who makes it and how, I'd say.
But it's much easier to get a nice cider out of those apple than it is to offer them as a snack. Kinda how you'd enjoy a croissant but eating raw wheat would suck ass.