Dear Good Fruit Grower: Over the years, being in Connecticut and trying to equate the delight fruit testers experience in western orchards with tree-ripe fruit, has been impossible. These testers are often important in deciding what –varieties of fruit are eventually grown and marketed. When fruit is harvested weeks before retail sales dates, many times the fruits do not ripen to rival tree-ripe status. Testers taste the real thing; we get secondhand flavor. Strawberries don’t ripen after harvest, and many California varieties are picked for optimal shipping but not optimal eater pleasure. California plums are very disappointing here, also. Fruit […]