Kharkov

[Misha]

I think the fruits and vegetables in season there are excellent. 

This could be said of any corner of the world. Canadian fruit from the Okanagan is exceptional in season as well, notably when you buy it from the vendors selling it from their trucks that came directly from the orchard.

[Shadow]

If you are eating fast food for a year, any normal meal will taste like the best you ever had.

People were farming 5000 years before fertilizer was discovered. Guess you can not grow anything without it...

the real problem are the consumers. Istead of eating what is fresh in a season they wish to eat their food whole year round. As they have no trouble paying extra, producers can import from areas with different climate or seasons, or make their own artificial seasons in greenhouses, as well as extend the life by freezing the products. That the taste of fresh products is better is something easilty exchanged for availability.

[facetrock]

  I agree with Misha. Kind of my point. If you want to buy veggies from inside the supermarkets during the summer and fall it wont be near as good or fresh than if you go to the local farmers market.

  I think our home grown fresh veggies are just as good as anyones on the planet.

 I do think our beef is better. Its actually more tender because our cattle are slaughtered at a younger age. Our hogs are leaner because its what people demand. They want less fat so thats what they get.

 Chicken, turkeys  ducks, rabbits....  I've ate those critters all over the world. Pretty much all the same no matter where you go. Its not rocket science to raise them.

Larry funny you mention honey. I noticed the honey here has a more reddish color. If I'm not mistaken its from the bees that gather on clover. I've seen honey that color in our stores. Usually from a small mom and pop outfit. I didnt taste it though so I cant judge that.

Butter now heres something. My grandfather was a butter maker in a small Iowa town at the local creamery. They went out of business in the early 70's. I remember my first trip to Tver Russia and buying some butter. As soon as I tasted it I knew what it was. Identical to my grandfathers. Awesome! Its easy to find butter like that here. I would ship 50 pounds home if I could.

Side note. Why did all the small creamerys in the midwest got out of business when they sold a great high demand product? The giant Coop's like Land o Lakes and Kemps started signing up dairy farmers for exclusive rights to their milk. Basically the small creamerys couldnt get milk. Very sad
 

[Muzh]

  I agree with Misha. Kind of my point. If you want to buy veggies from inside the supermarkets during the summer and fall it wont be near as good or fresh than if you go to the local farmers market.
  I think our home grown fresh veggies are just as good as anyones on the planet.
 I do think our beef is better. Its actually more tender because our cattle are slaughtered at a younger age. Our hogs are leaner because its what people demand. They want less fat so thats what they get.
 Chicken, turkeys  ducks, rabbits....  I've ate those critters all over the world. Pretty much all the same no matter where you go. Its not rocket science to raise them.
farmers for exclusive rights to their milk. Basically the small creamerys couldnt get milk. Very sad

If you say so....

[facetrock]

Shadow. I would say man has been using fertilizer very soon after he started farming. Its called manure.

 Ever go out to a cow pasture in the spring when the grass is just coming up? You can tell exactly where a cow dumped a load. The grass is three times as long.

 The early farmer in Europe would have figured this out.

. The other way to fertilize is crop rotataion and was used for thousands of years. Let it go wild for a few years then plant it again. Doesnt take a genius to figure that out either

[IAmZon]

  Food.  Is it better in Ukraine than in the USA?  I honestly dont think so.

OBVIOUSLY!  Taste is a chemistry.   Walmart has the best chemists.  DR has the best seafood (but it still tastes less than Sam's Club)  Argentina has the best beef (but still less tasty than Mr. Sam)  And, have you tasted their biscuits?!?!?

Fat. Happy. Stupid.  These things often run in threes

jugo de naturales?  Todos los tipos ... todo los dias ... me estrano mucho! 

If there was a "shot" that could cure me of potato chips I would take it.   No good comes from pleasures of the taste IMO.

[fathertime]

They don't use fertilizers because it is unnecessary.  The soil is black, more than 4 meters down into the ground  Ukraine is known for having the world's best soil.  In areas where the soil is not as good, or where non food products are grown (tobacco, linen), fertilizers are used.


Greenhouse produce is more expensive.  Many people can food they grow themselves for winter consumption.

I wasn't aware of the extent of the quality soil Ukraine has.  I did some research and viewed a couple videos.  There is even a black market for the Ukrainian soil. 
 I have always grown quite a bit of food myself, and have very good soil, but still it is necessary to add some soil supplements to maximize my yield. 


Fathertime! 

[mendeleyev]

Hitler had a program where soil from Ukraine was shipped by train to Germany. It is that good.

[GoodOlBoy]

Hitler had a program where soil from Ukraine was shipped by train to Germany. It is that good.

So what is the deal Mendy.... volcanoes (black dirt)??
 
GOB

[GQBlues]

  I agree with Misha. Kind of my point. If you want to buy veggies from inside the supermarkets during the summer and fall it wont be near as good or fresh than if you go to the local farmers market....

That's simply because they're naturally/tree-ripened, as oppose to the supermarket items that were plucked way before its time since transport/handling from farmer to consumers requires far more time as oppose to items bought directly from a farmer's market.

[Misha]

That's simply because they're naturally/tree-ripened, as oppose to the supermarket items that were plucked way before its time since transport/handling from farmer to consumers requires far more time as oppose to items bought directly from a farmer's market.

Pretty much. The extreme case would be tomatoes: a tomato grown anywhere with or without fertilizer in any tint of soil and ripened naturally on the vine and eaten right after picking tastes better than one bought in a store that was picked to ship.

[Shadow]

Pretty much. The extreme case would be tomatoes: a tomato grown anywhere with or without fertilizer in any tint of soil and ripened naturally on the vine and eaten right after picking than one bought in a store that was picked to ship.

Tomatoes can be grown without soil. Prime Dutch export product.

[mendeleyev]

So what is the deal Mendy.... volcanoes (black dirt)??

Black soil made Ukraine famous as she was once called "the breadbasket of Europe" before Soviet mismanagement. It is said that Ukraine could feed Europe if the soil and farming practices of previous centuries were followed. Humas, organic compost, has been the fertilizer most commonly used in Ukraine. In recent years however farms have been adopting chemical additives and this is ruining the soil.

[mendeleyev]

Some of the biggest and nicest looking vegetables and fruits come from the areas in or around Chernobyl. The small population that remained consists mainly of pensioners and they have gardens to die for! (pun intended)

[Misha]

Tomatoes can be grown without soil. Prime Dutch export product.

Marijuana as well, a prime B.C. export 

[Larry1]

Black soil made Ukraine famous as she was once called "the breadbasket of Europe" before Soviet mismanagement. 

And now it's famous as "the bridebasket of Europe". 

But on a serious note, if my recollection from a long-ago Russian history class at university is correct, the Soviet Union (whose most productive agricultural region was Ukraine) never exceeded the grain harvest of the pre-revolution year 1913. I was astonished by that statistic.  It seems all but impossible given the improvements in, and greater availability of, mechanized farm equipment. Assuming it is correct, it is a damning indictment of communism.

[Boethius]

You can't have a viable agricultural sector when you murder all the best farmers.

[CanadaMan]

Some of the biggest and nicest looking vegetables and fruits come from the areas in or around Chernobyl. The small population that remained consists mainly of pensioners and they have gardens to die for! (pun intended)

Come from or came from?
I was going to introduce the topic of radioactive soil, but you beat me to it. 
Are you saying that the soil around Chernobyl and the rest of Ukraine is radioactive-free today?

I like big and nice looking vegetables too, but if they are radioactive, I'd rather pass on them. 

[Vasilisa]

  Food.

Is it better in Ukraine than in the USA?

I honestly dont think so.

I disagree. For example fresh fruits, vegetables in spring, summer and fall seasons are way better than they are in 90% of places in the US.  Go to any market place in the FSU and an American store and the smell will be completely different, you will hardly smell fruits and vegetables  in the US, it may look great and fresh but it smells like plastic and tastes like plastic. You have to add different dressings in the US to give it a flavor, in Russia or Ukraine I can eat it the way it is.

[Boethius]

I think that depends on where you are in the US, Vasilisa, and whether you shop farmer's markets.  My MIL had no issues with the food here.  We did take her to a deli to find a cheese she liked (two - one imported Italian, and one award winning Quebec cheese), and she had no issue with the taste of fruit and veggies, but I buy predominantly organic produce.

[mendeleyev]

CM, I'm not about to eat from a Chernobyl garden anytime soon.... 

[Shadow]

Marijuana as well, a prime B.C. export 

Actually it needs a lot of food and light to grow fast.
But it can also be grown the natural way, in which case it blooms just like any other plant.

[Misha]

Actually it needs a lot of food and light to grow fast.
But it can also be grown the natural way, in which case it blooms just like any other plant.

Yes, and that is why the grow-ops are big business here. The advantage: less visible from the air and I presume that it can be grown year-round... Don't ask me whether the organic, grown in black soil pot is better, as I don't smoke any variety

[Vasilisa]

I think that depends on where you are in the US, Vasilisa, and whether you shop farmer's markets.

Boethius, that's good that you buy food in farmer's markets. The problem is that you have to find this place in the US and know where to go. In the FSU you go to any place no matter if it is a small supermarket or a big supermarket or an open-air market and you can find organic vegetables anywhere.
I have lived in several different places in the US, used to stay with different families, I have been in the farmer's market twice: a  family of my friends visited it before a special event (once a year) and another one was an old lady (my ex MIL) who visited farmer's markets 2 or 3 times a year with her girl friends.

Most people don't care and just buy food in local supermarkets. I don't even start talking about the popular diet of people, for example popular fast food- if in Russia a visit to McDonalds is a rare event, soda is drunk from time to time, in the US it's a regular every day drink like tea in the FSU. I don't think that people that eat fast food several times a week, sometimes several times a day would make a trip to farmer's markets every week. I don't think that chain restaurants buy organic food.
In other words in the US you eat a lot more of GMO than in the FSU unless you have plenty of time, money and a healthy lifestyle is on the top of your hobbies.

[Boethius]

I don't buy exclusively at farmer's markets, the latter only in summer, which is a short season here.  I do buy supermarket produce, and most of it, though not all, is organic.  Yes, I agree, some fruits and vegetables from supermarkets have no taste, tomatoes and peaches being the worst.  Tomatoes, incidentally, had the taste removed from them in genetic modification, a by product of producing a "transportable" product.