Fruit with a snap, crackle, pop

It’s sweet!

It’s juicy!

It FIZZES!

And it’s coming soon to a school cafeteria near you. It’s already made it to a school cafeteria near me.

Researchers at Oregon State University here in Corvallis are involved in the development of a new product called Fizzy Fruit: fresh fruits, like grapes, pears or pineapple, are doused with carbon dioxide gas. The resulting carbonation gives the fruit a fizzy tingle in the mouth.

Schools in nearby Albany are the first to try out the new product. After a test run last week, Fizzy Fruit will replace dessert there for the month of January.

According to an article in the Gazette-Times, “As far as the students were concerned, the Fizzy Fruit was a hit, with many going back for second and third helpings.”

Eight-year-old Rachel [ ] popped a red grape into her mouth, bit down, and then burst into giggles.

“It tickles!” she said.

“It’s bubbly,” Sary [ ] said.

“It tastes good. It tastes like pop,” Alexandria [ ] said. “Oh my gosh,” she murmured as she popped a second grape into her mouth and felt it bubble up.

Karston [ ], 8, said he would rather eat fizzy grapes than regular grapes. “They taste like pop,” he said. “I like pop.”

What think ye? Will Fizzy Fruit encourage children to choose healthy foods? Could it help to wean us off our national addiction to sweets? Will the future see us lined up at Fizzy Fruit kiosks in malls and sporting events in place of those little ice cream dots? Or are we mostly feeding our love of all things carbonated? -- when kids are already drinking huge amounts of soda despite the accompanying health risks.

I suspect the debate is just beginnning. But in this area, like any other, we as consumers have enormous power. What will we choose to buy?

(Here's one industry article on that question.)

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The Simply in Season recipe of the week, Grape Pie, is another way of preparing fresh, dark purple grapes. One of my favorite quotes in the book appears on that page:

"The miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine -- which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes."

-- Wendell Berry