Smart Fruit . . . .

I've always known that eating your vegetables was good for you and fish was brain food; but no one ever told me my fruit was well educated. A bright white spot on my apple today stopped me from taking a bite. Was this a new form of tropical rot? Was I to be the next Snow White attempt? Upon closer examination I saw what appeared to a "U" shaped logo with a fruit symbol inside and the name "unifrutti." Unifrutti? I just had to smile. "Uni" is the abbreviated term I always hear for University. Maybe not in the states, but in Europe and Australia it is quiet prevalent.

My apple, the one I was about to murder in peanut butter soon, was not your run of the orchard type, but a well educated, diploma toting Malus Domestica. Now I've heard of genetically modified fruit, but educated? Perhaps it is strictly a Central America thing. Costa Rica does have a literacy rate of 94.9% so maybe that comes from educating the apples. Maybe I'd just grabbed a smart apple? Would I suddenly be able to read Spanish, speak it, turn tan and handle spicy food? Anxious to discover the truth behind such things, I went to take a bite but hesitated. Even though it could have been the next "iMac" apple I was biting into, when you think that your fruit might be smarter then you, it does play with your mind; or at least with mine. So I quickly checked online to make sure I wasn't about to destroy a well trained, government operated spy apple and thus suffer severe consequences and indigestion. Nothing. No Apple U or Oxford Orchards College. Whew. Now I could sink my teeth into the deliciousness of imported goods without guilt and definitely no fear.

Actually Unifruitti is a produce company based world-wide, but bring these graduates from Chile into Costa Rica. Apples are not native to this country and don't grow here because they need a freeze to release the seed in the ground (thank you Titus for that little fact). With the coldest temperature here dropping to a chilling 75 degrees, you can see why apples remain dormant along with locals during the hours of 11am and 4pm.

There is a local Costa Rican apple, but it is shaped like a pear, not like their traditional cousins from the north. It is both sweet and juicy, but perishes quickly and thus cannot be sold in the market before it turns into mush. I'd love to try the mush, just to know, but sadly no one thinks that is a good idea. If you are lucky to find such a mythological tree (as I have seen one but not the fruit, and thus could not identify either again) eat till your hearts content because the local wildlife will soon be by to finish off what's left. Again another lesson learned on our Rancho Margot ranch tour. It wasn't just a tour, it was an education!