It's Foodie Friday! And Cars Aren't the Only Hybrids

I'm hooked on strawberry cherries right now. And if you love cherries, you'll be hooked too! I can't seem to find any Web info about these tasty bad boys to confirm whether or not it's a hybrid fruit, but the consistency of the cherry - once bitten - does remind me of the inside of a strawberry a little bit. Either way, they're so good I've given myself a stomach ache by eating an entire box in one sitting. (Like last night for example.) Yum-ee!

"A hybrid fruit is the result of cross-pollination of two plants from the same species or genus. When humans intervene in the process by selecting plants to pollinate for intentional results, the procedure is painstakingly meticulous and monitored. It may take years of selective breeding to produce a desired fruit. The plum-apricot hybrid known as the 'pluot' [pictured right] took biologist Floyd Zaiger around 20 years to perfect before he introduced it to the market in the 1990s. [There are several varieties of pluots with colors that range from pink to red. The pluot is sweeter than both of its parents, the plum and the apricot.] Different from open-pollination (which is uncontrolled or varied pollination by insects, birds, winds, or natural causes), when the human hand brushes pollen from the male flower of one plant to the stigma of the flower of a female plant this type of hand-pollination delivers controlled results." [SOURCE: thedailybeast.com]

Another hybrid is the Jazz Apple (pictured left), a relatively new apple variety from New Zealand, and the result of a cross between the Royal Gala apple and the Braeburn apple. Launched in April 2004, the Jazz Apple is sweet, crunchy and juicy. It has a firm, dense flesh and a complex flavor with the acid of Braeburn and the sweetness of Royal Gala giving it broad appeal. Jazz apples are now widely available in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, France, Chile, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, USA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Canada, and the UK. [SOURCE: Wiki]

I haven't had a Tangelo in ages! A citrus fruit that is a hybrid of a tangerine and either a pomelo or a grapefruit, the tangelo may have originated in Southeast Asia over 3,500 years ago. The fruit is the size of an adult fist and has a tangerine taste, but are very juicy, to the point of not providing much flesh but producing excellent and plentiful juice. They have loose skin, are easier to peel than a traditional orange, and are easily distinguished from oranges by a characteristic knob at the top of the fruit. [SOURCE: Wiki]

Ever heard of an Aprium? (I hadn't.) Apriums (pictured left) are complex crosses of plums and apricots, requiring several generations of crosses to create a new fruit. Comprised genetically of ¼ plum and ¾ apricot, the aprium, like the pluot, is derived from another hybrid fruit called a plumcot. (Are you dizzy yet?) The Plumcot is a natural complex cross hybrid between plums and apricots, exhibiting more plum-like traits. The Pluot Guy - Floyd Zaiger - introduced the aprium in the late 1980s.

And then there's the Nectarine-Mango or the Mango-Nectarine (see below). Wow. I've never had one of these before, but I would definitely try it!