Ok, I’m breaking off from the gardening for just long enough to bring you something which may well change your lives – Child Two’s Fruit Theories.
Now Child Two is a thoughtful sort of girl. She is not one to waffle. She has a tidy mind (though sadly not always the tidiest bedroom ….) and when she speaks, it is precise and to the point. Unless she’s criticising me, of course, in which case she’s waaaaay off mark. Obviously.
Well, last night we were having fruit salad for pudding. Her first bombshell was about grapes. ‘Have you noticed that the longer grapes taste nicer?’ she remarked. Immediately, we all searched our bowls for long grapes. Then tested them against shorter grapes. She was right. The longer grapes tasted better – sweeter, more flavoursome.
We were reeling from this revelation when Child Two spoke again. ‘And strawberries. When you look at the top of the strawberry, if it’s got a white ring where you’ve cut off the leafy bit, then it’s not going to be very sweet. But if it’s pink, it’ll be lovely.’
I was aghast. I’ve been eating strawberries for forty-mumble years now, and I’ve never noticed that. What’s more, she was completely right. The pink-top strawberries were delicious, the white-tops were more acid and a lot less tasty by far.
‘Any more fruit tips?’ I asked my new fruit guru. Child Two thought for a while. ‘If you smell a banana, and it smells really banana-y, then it’ll be nice. If it just smells of, you know, nothing, then it’s not great.’
Soon Child Two was being pressed for fruit advice from all sides, but sadly she could divulge no more. She only really eats strawberries, grapes and bananas, you see. Oh, and apples. I’ll have to ask her for her apple tips tonight.
