Sara no H has a great post up right now about annoying marketing terms, and how many of them she reluctantly admits to using on a regular basis.
I feel her pain, but what’s more interesting to me is the PS to her post, in which she mentions her love of Europe’s Best frozen raspberries. Because to me “Europe’s Best,” as applied to frozen fruit, is one of the most annoying marketing terms I’ve ever seen, in the history of ever.
For a few months since I started to notice Europe’s Best adverts showing up on TV, I’ve been at a loss to understand why we would respond to the vague marketing idea that Europe either has better raspberries, or knows how to freeze’em up gooder.
I mean, I know there was a time when it was cool to think everything was better and more essential and real in Europe, but now that Africa is the new Europe, (in terms of its worldly cool factor, not it’s capacity to freeze stuff) does that still hold? Can we apply it to berries– particularly to berries that we already grow really well right here? And are we really going to be convinced that Europe is, as a general rule, more frozen than Canada? Freezing, and berries; those are two things this country has under control.
I haven’t read the back of a package of Europe’s Best frozen fruit, but I would hazard a guess that it is not actually grown in Europe. Nevertheless, what most annoys me about Europe’s Best is the idea that a berry grown in Europe would still be at its Best after shipping it all the way to Canada, or that adding thousands of kilometers of travel to a food product makes anything better for anyone, much less our melting world’s capacity to keep things frozen.
From where I sit, they’ve essentially branded our worst impulses and insecurities, and told us to eat it.
Comments
Comment from lauralyn
Time: January 13, 2007, 4:46 pm
Frozen berries to canadians. It reminds me of the term I remember my mother using (before it was politically incorrect) of selling “ice boxes to eskimos”. There is so much wrong in both statements I think I hurt a little.
However, I too had noted “europe’s best” and found it confusing, this summer. Although, as Martin pointed out to me, that berries are not ‘in season’ all year round in Canada. Thus, I made jam. And then, I froze my own fruit. Because I do like fruit in the winter, and don’t want to buy “europe’s best”. I did wonder though if the reason of superiority of european fruit is the much tighter restrictions on pesticides there?
Comment from Jill
Time: January 13, 2007, 5:02 pm
No. Your way is better. Buying unlocal produce is worse for you and the world than buying inorganic produce.
But I suspect you know this already.
The best quote I ever heard on the subject, which I can only paraphrase now, (it was in a giant 7 page article on Salon.com about 4 years ago I think) was that once a piece of fruit has travelled 2000k, should we even consider it food anymore, let alone organic?
I’m becoming very interested in different methods of preserving and canning. The energy we use freezing our own fruit is at least small compared to that we would use buying fruit someone else froze and then drove to us. More cost-effective, too, I suspect. Europe’s best is pricey! Preserving and canning: we should go back to that.
Comment from Sara…no H
Time: January 15, 2007, 9:03 pm
I feel as though I need to justify my over-spending on frozen raspberries now!
My affinity for frozen-raspberry-eating outweighs sometimes the cost of finding these delicious little treats in the store, and to be honest, aside from the raspberries my mom picks, then freezes, I haven’t found any other brand that are so flavourful…
Comment from Katie
Time: January 16, 2007, 9:47 am
I’m big time into home canning. I’ve been doing jams for a few years now, and last summer canned sliced peaches for the first time. They’re sooooo tasty, and such a treat to have in the middle of winter. Home preserving rocks!
Comment from sarah
Time: January 16, 2007, 11:01 am
How does one home-can?
And also Jill, call me. I’m wondering if this is right now the only way to reach you?
Comment from Katie
Time: January 17, 2007, 9:30 am
Step one: buy a canner. Then either scour thrift stores for old jars, or buy new ones (usually in abundance during the canning months of July and August). Then either make your jam or pack your fruit, and follow canning directions. Time consuming? A little. Satisfying? Heck yes!
Comment from Jill
Time: January 17, 2007, 10:11 am
A friend of mine jars boxes and boxes of her own tomato sauce. I think she’d agree with you.
Other cool pro maneuver: ice cube trays full of pesto.
Comment from Katie
Time: January 18, 2007, 10:07 am
Yeah, I do the pesto ice cubes too. They’re just so convienient to grab out of the freezer and pop one or two right onto your hot pasta. And home made pesto is just sooooo much better than bought stuff.
Comment from Ryan
Time: January 18, 2007, 10:45 am
I got to say their raspberries are a superior product getting me through the winter when US fruit is both expensive and of poor quality and taste. Blend them while still frozen with some yogurt, a few walnuts and a some maple syrup and you have yourself a fancy Italian ice.
Any way I digress the name is just the normal marketing idea actually the fruit comes from Chile.
Comment from Andrea
Time: January 24, 2007, 4:46 pm
Speaking of home canning, the people over at the 100 Mile Diet site (great, great read) recommend having canning parties to relieve the tedium of doing it alone, and as a way to introduce it to newcomers. I suppose another added benefit of canning parties is that you can combine your haul of berries and share it with others, thus making a large deposit in the karma bank at the same time.
My mom used to make apple jelly from the apples in our backyard tree, as well as applesauce. Those were the days…
Comment from Mike
Time: January 25, 2007, 5:11 pm
My perception is that European government don’t tollerate genetic engineering. Governments here protect and foster such evils as Monsanto - causing people to eat cancer causing roundup. So the ring of “Europe” sounds healthier, less dangerous. The fruit, I think is actually from Chili, who knows what kind of chemicals they use there. There is another cheaper larger bag of mixed berries in the store, $10, but 3 times the amount, and it even contains blueberries, yummy. Don’t know about how many chemicals are in it though.
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