Issue 13.12 - December 2005
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Healthful Hybrids 

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We love Twinkies, Slim Jims, and any kind of processed cheese-like spread. Let's face it, those food scientists toiling in the basements of transnational conglomerates know what's tasty. Not to be outdone, produce growers are taking a shot at engineering superfoods - fruits and vegetables with unexpected colors, unique flavors, and heightened nutritional value. Some come from crossbreeding; others are the products of lab-based chemistry. Their common denominator is novelty. The idea is paying off: Formerly unknown produce now nets more than $100 million each year in the US alone. Nectaplum, anyone?

(Concord grape + Fuji apple)
C&O Nursery, Wenatchee, Washington
Tasting notes: Think crunchy Welch's. Still, tasters gave it the thumbs-up in a recent market trial.
Backstory: C&O marketing whizzes decided to bathe Fuji apples in a patented grape-flavored solution. Other flavors are in development.
First harvest: 2004
Average price: $4 to $5 for four

(Nectarine + plum)
Zaiger's Genetics, Modesto, California
Tasting notes: Juicy, melt-in-your-mouth flesh with a hint of spice.
Backstory: Zaiger "hybridizers" crossed hundreds of fruits, then culled the field after taste tests.
First harvest: 2005
Average price: About $1.75 a pound - 50 to 75 cents higher than ordinary nectarines

(Miniaturized kiwifruit)
Kiwi Korners, Danville, Pennsylvania
Tasting notes: Kiwi Korners describes the flavor as "cotton candy with a refined finish." Probably because there's almost double the sugar per ounce.
Backstory: Staff discovered these growing among other hardy Asian kiwis and cultivated them.
First harvest: 2002
Average price: $3 to $5 for a 6-ounce package

(Peach + apricot + plum)
Zaiger's Genetics, Modesto, California
Tasting notes: Sophisticated Hawaiian Punch. The best of all three progenitors, with a hint of mango.
Backstory: Inventor Floyd Zaiger swapped pollen among peach, plum, and apricot trees with an eye-shadow brush and reared the resulting seedlings.
First harvest: 2008 or later
Average price: TBD

(Carrots + nutrients + pigment)
US Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wisconsin Tasting notes: USDA researcher Philipp Simon says his carrots taste just like regular ones.
Backstory: Simon bred red, yellow, purple, and white carrots by emphasizing natural pigments.
Different colors are high in different nutrients.
First harvest: 2004
Average price: 75 cents to $1 per pound

SunFresh, Saint Augustine, Florida
(Low-carb, lower-cal potato)
Tasting notes: Researchers at the University of Florida call it moist and creamy.Backstory: While testing potato varieties developed by a seed company in the Netherlands, researchers at UF found one with 30 percent fewer carbs.
First harvest: 2005
Average price: $1.10 a pound

- Elizabeth Svoboda