"fruit" news and stories

Hold up, frankenfish. While the USDA is still hung up on whether to approve genetically modified salmon, it appears there's a new mutant on the table: a genetically modified apple that won't brown.

Designed by British Columbia-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits, the new "Arctic" apple -- or what critics are calling the "botox apple," reports Gawker -- is said to have "silencing" enzymes, which would prevent it from looking old, no matter how old it gets. While this may be arguably okay for foreheads, we take it most people would rather know when their food is past its prime. Just like waxing fruit and piping nitrogen into fish to make it look younger, preventing fruit to brown would no longer allow us to know when it's gone bad.

According to the Associated Press, the company "licensed the non-browning technology from Australian researchers who pioneered it in potatoes." Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, tells the AP that this technology "appears to benefit apple growers and shippers more than consumers." He's predicting failure.

The president of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, Neal Carter, happens to agree: "Some people won't like it just because of what it is." Yep, seems reason enough, we think. But, he adds, "people will see the process used to get it had very sound science." Excuse us, Mr. Carter, but so did the atomic bomb.

Human X-rays and MRIs are so fascinating because we're given a glimpse into that which we cannot usually see. But when fruit and vegetables were scanned in an MRI machine by lab research technologist Andy Ellison, the resulting images were entrancing due to their mystification -- not clarification -- of the inanimate subjects. The stitched-together image frames produce hypnotizing animations that are far more revealing than a simple slice and dice. We're not exactly eager to recreate Salon writer Francis Lam's claustrophobic MRI experience, but now we can't help but wonder what our animated insides might look like.

To see the animations of an artichoke, watermelon, broccoli and more check out Ellison's blog, Inside Insides.

As anyone who's ever owned a fruit tree knows, there's nothing quite like sinking your teeth into that first ripe plum (or fig or cherry) of the season -- but what do you do with the other, oh, five thousand of them?

Once you've plied your family, friends and neighbors with bushel upon bushel, if you're lucky enough to live in Seattle, you head to City Fruit. The founders of the local nonprofit recognized that there was a whole bounty of fresh, locally grown fruit literally going to waste, from backyard Bartlett pears to "feral" apples growing on public land.

The group not only educates fruit-tree owners on how best to care for their trees, it also organizes "harvesting groups" and maintains a list of food banks and other charitable organizations that welcome donations of fresh fruit.

It all sounds very quaint, yes, but these folks aren't stuck back in the days of Johnny Appleseed. In what is perhaps one of the coolest uses of Google Maps to date, City Fruit has unveiled the Fruit Tree Map of Seattle. The map gives tree owners who are stuck with an embarrassment of riches a chance to share their harvest, and it also allows anyone who happens to spot a public tree that's ripe for the picking to alert other fruit fans to its location.

• Raw gazpachos dish up the best of fresh summer produce in one lively slurp.
• The produce aisle is increasingly becoming a land of "identity crisis," as fruits are no longer distinguished by their specific, telling varieties but strictly by their generic names.
• The dark, roasted Grand Teton Brewing Black Cauldron may seem like an unlikely choice for the June beer of the month, but it "positively cries out for grilled steak."
• After a stint at Blue Velvet, chef Kris Morninstar is back with gutsy fare at District, which is "all about flavor and integrity of ingredients."
• Restaurant recruiter Brad Metzger has created the ultimate chef playhouse, with an exquisite private kitchen set up to allow chefs to try out for jobs with prospective employers.

What do you get when you cross a strawberry and a pineapple? A pineberry, of course.
This designer fruit -- a hybrid that looks like a white strawberry with red seeds, but which allegedly smells and tastes like a pineapple -- will be sold in 45 Waitrose supermarkets across the U.K. for the next five weeks while they're in season, ABC News reported.

Cross-breeding fruit to create new varieties is a $100 million business in the U.S., ABC News reported.

About seven years ago the pineberry was taken from its native South America and grown commercially in glasshouses by the dutch, ABC reported. Like strawberries, they're green until they ripen, but instead of turning a deep, juicy red, these fruits turn white, like they've been attacked by Bunnicula.

Pineberries sell for about $4.50 for a 4.5 ounce bag until April 13, after which the price will be hiked up to about $6.00.