Squeeze me I’m fresh – three great greengrocers on Grainger Delivery
Weighing in at an eye-watering 8.5 Kg the UK holds the record for the world’s largest onion. Who said Britain’s no longer great?
The crowd at Harrogate Flower Show had to be held back from squeezing and smelling it and at twice the size of grower Tony Glover’s head, there would have been plenty to go around had there been a stampede. Plus we have it on good authority that someone in the crowd was heard shouting ‘squeeze me I’m fresh’.
Hector Hall, Bryan Muers & Sons, and Hutton & Oliver
It’s as natural as the weather for humans to smell and squeeze fruit and vegetables to check they’re fresh but there are three great greengrocers on Granger Delivery where you’re always guaranteed freshness - Bryan Muers & Son, Hector Hall, and Hutton & Oliver.
They’re taking orders right now so go stock up on some of that scrumptious healthy produce.
Why do we squeeze and smell fruit and vegetables?
We’ve been discouraged from touching anything unnecessarily during the pandemic of course, which kind of goes against what feels like a primordial instinct to fondle grub.
At a very basic level, smelling is the best way to determine ripeness in berries, mushrooms, melons, pineapple and onions. Most produce is going to give up some clues if you squeeze it.
From avocados to zucchini (what American’s call courgettes), texture and firmness are key to choosing good produce, but sometimes firmer is better.
Look for sturdy texture when it comes to stuff like peppers, broccoli, and squash, whereas tomatoes, potatoes, plums and avocados should always have a little give.
A brief history of fruit and vegetables
From Eve and that bad apple in the Garden of Eden, fruit has played its part in shaping the human experience and here’s a brief history of fruit and vegetables.
Turns out Emperor Augusts and Julius Caesar were both asparagus nuts. Augustus preferred his al dente while Julius Caesar melted butter over his plus they both had matching asparagus-shaped novelty hot water bottles.
King Louis XVIII of France loved strawberries and cream so much that he ditched Dream Topping for good.
Former American president Thomas Jefferson couldn’t get enough cherries and ran a successful side hustle manufacturing ironing board covers ablaze with them while apples were Abe Lincoln’s thing, especially in pies, and he was often seen wassailing in the local orchard.
Catherine de’ Medici, the Italian princess who brought her Renaissance to France when she married Henry II was a lover of artichokes. She’d snack on them in between taking shots during her favourite pastime billiards.
How psychologists explain our urge to squeeze
When we see a cute puppy we must fight an overwhelming urge to squeeze the cuteness with everything we've got, say psychologists. This is a perfectly normal psychological tick called ‘cute aggression’ and strangely enough, this compulsion might even make us more caring.
The first study to look at cute aggression in the human brain revealed that this is a complex neurological response involving several parts of it.
By triggering innate processes for caregiving, the authors of the study think that cute aggression stops us from getting emotionally overloaded by things that are super cute and may need looking after.
So there you have it!
By Jason Caddy