"hybrid" news and stories

No, you're not looking at an enchanted forest on a planet made of Play-Doh, you're looking at broccoli. Sort of. It's Romanesco, a fractal vegetable from the broccoli family. It's sometimes called Romanesco broccoli and perhaps better known as the Broccoflower, as it's often mistaken for a broccoli-cauliflower hybrid (which, as we understand, does exist and looks a lot like Romanesco).

We have to admit though, we're not too concerned with its classification -- what we really want to know is how it tastes sautéed with butter and sea salt.

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Remember the Simpsons episode where Homer accidentally breeds tobacco and tomatoes, calls the resulting hybrid a Tomacco and gets rich?

Unfortunately, the tomacco, albeit a cartoon invention, was the first thing that came to my mind upon hearing about the stramato.

A hybrid of - you guessed it - a tomato and a strawberry - its inventors are saying that their cocktail tomato" boasts a "beautiful strawberry shape, naturally sweet taste and a rich, deep red color."

Eh - I mean, it sounds good, but did the world really need another cocktail tomato? What was wrong with the old ones? Or just plain ol' cherry, for that matter?

Whadya think, readers? Yes or no on the stramato?

A pluot is a relatively new fruit, developed in the late 20th century by Floyd Zaiger, a hybrid between a plum and an apricot that is touted by growers as having all of the good properties of both fruits, and none of the drawbacks. They have a very high sugar content, are smooth-skinned and do not have the tartness that is often associated with plum skins. Their flesh is a little bit firmer than that of plums, similar in firmness to the flesh of a ripe nectarine, so they hold up better to being eaten out-of-hand or sliced up than plums do.

Along with some legislation about exotic pets and street racing that takes effect tomorrow, the state of Minnesota has just announced that their official state fruit will be the Honeycrisp apple. The apples are a hybrid of Honeygold and Macoun apples, and they were first developed at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s. Today, the apples are grown in several surrounding states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, as well, but it can only be grown by licensed producers with the permission of the University. The apples are exceptionally crisp, juicy and aromatic, making them popular eating apples.

Other edible icons for the state are milk (the state drink), walleye (the state fish), blueberry muffins (the state muffin) and morel mushrooms (the state mushroom), most of which were selected during the 1980s.

Source

At first glance, especially with this interior photo, this fruit looks like a cantaloupe. It's not. It's an orange-flesh honeydew melon. I first spotted these unusual yellow-skinned melons at the market this week. They were simply labeled "Orange Flesh," not as a distinct type of melon, but they smelled delicious, so I thought I would give them a try. Apparently, another name for these is the Temptation Melon and they are actually a hybrid between cantaloupes and honeydews. It has a smooth, thin yellow skin and a creamy orange interior that is both juicy and sweet - combining the defining traits of both melon types, though it actually tastes more like honeydew than cantaloupe. I highly recommend picking one up if you can find them.