Things you like/love/loved that aren't there any more

[Jenise]

Even up by you, in what I presume is grape country? Here in NY, the farmers markets have a nice range of beautiful grape varieties, to suit a range of tastes. In fact some are already in the markets, but I'm too occupied with the summer fruits to worry about grapes just yet!!

Yes. Various types of concord grapes (including a local hybrid that is supposedly better), which I adore, do show up in the fall at farmers markets but green grapes here on the west side of the Cascades are scarce. I had some excellent ones from a vine in someone's yard few years ago, exact type unknown, but otherwise green grapes are scarce. I built an arbor in my yard and planted the concord hybrid to one side and a spicy red grape to the other, but deeply regret passing up a gruner veltliner when I made my choice. There was only one at the nursery I was at, and it was sickly looking compared to the others. I should have risked it anyway.

Even up by you, in what I presume is grape country? Here in NY, the farmers markets have a nice range of beautiful grape varieties, to suit a range of tastes. In fact some are already in the markets, but I'm too occupied with the summer fruits to worry about grapes just yet!!

Yes. Various types of concord grapes (including a local hybrid that is supposedly better), which I adore, do show up in the fall at farmers markets but green grapes here on the west side of the Cascades are scarce.

Ah yes, Concord. Peculiar taste, but also quite common in Ny, so those are actually part of my childhood memories! But yes, I guess I don't see many crisp green grapes.

The Concord grape is a domesticated* variety of the American fox grape Vitis labrusca. This is a different species from the Eurasian wine grape Vitis vinifera. V. labrusca grapes are noted for a distinctive strong, musky aroma when ripe. When made into wine, this turns into a peculiar aroma and flavor that most wine aficionados find distasteful. The technical winespeak term is "foxy". The Concord grape was first domesticated in Concord, Massachusetts. The grapes are mostly eaten as is or made into grape juice or jam. Manischewitz and a few other producers make Jewish sacramental wine from Concord grapes. There are other varieties derived from V. labrusca such as Catawba that have less of the foxy character when vinified.

Modern genetic analysis shows that Concord vines have about 1/3 V. vinifera parentage, and that the Catawba variety is one of its ancestors.

-Paul W.

*Wild grape species, including V. vinifera have separate male and female plants and produce fruit irregularly, not every year. There are occasionally vines with hermaphroditic flowers and that produce a reliable annual crop of fruit. For V. vinifera, such plants were discovered thousands of years ago and all modern grape varieties derive from them. The Concord grape was isolated in 1849.

Good variety of grapes in NYC, too.

[Jenise]

Ah yes, Concord. Peculiar taste, but also quite common in Ny, so those are actually part of my childhood memories! But yes, I guess I don't see many crisp green grapes.

It's the flavor of Welch's grape juice! But I do love them. When I was a kid a family up the street built an arbor over their garage. Their kids and I could climb up using a border fence behind the garage, and we'd sit up there and stuff ourselves. Good times!

I just learned that Kleenex has decided to abandon the Canadian market after many years as the most popular supplier here - to the point where their name became a generic term and people would ask someone to pass them a kleenex rather than a tissue.

I don't know - I think that they blew it!

Someone (Jenise?) mentioned the disappearance of white grapes (Thompson seedless) from local supermarkets. I checked yesterday and they're readily available here in southern NH. I've had wine made from Thompson seedless. It smells and tastes like bubblegum.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Bill, Kleenex is the same here in the U.S. Is there a word for the kind of word it is, that is a brand-name-become-standard, like Xerox copy for any copy no matter the machine that made it?

Paul, lucky you. Thompson seedless are delightful eating grapes. I miss them!

Is there a word for the kind of word it is, that is a brand-name-become-standard, like Xerox copy for any copy no matter the machine that made it?

There are too many words used for the purpose, none of which is quite right: deonym, eponym, metonym. Related concepts are genericization and, my favorite, "trademark erosion".

There was a discussion of words that started as trademarks but became generic (zipper is one of them) in the Unusual Words topic in Friends and Fun.

I interned at IBM's Cambridge (MA) Scientific Center for a few years back in the late '70s. On my first day of work I asked one of the staff where the Xerox machine was. He replied "The IBM copier is two doors down on the left."

A trademark becoming generic can be a localized phenomenon. For example, to hoover, meaning to vacuum clean, is a generic term in the UK, but Hoover remains exclusively a trademark in the US. Where in the UK you would talk about "hoovering up", we would say "vacuum cleaning".

-Paul W.

I was shopping at Lull Farm today and delighted to see they'd put out a second wheel of Sage Darby cheese. This one had the label on it. It comes from Ford Farm, a large cheddar producer in England. Lull Farm also have a Double Gloucester and Double Gloucester with Chives from Ford Farm. Whole Foods in Nashua NH is also carrying Ford Farm Sage Derby now. It's good to see it back in reliable supply.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Cool, Paul. I do love that cheese too but haven't found a good source on the west coast. I recall passing on it somewhere, maybe Trader Joe's, because it had been the recipient of too much green dye.

I find Ford Farm's Sage Derby very tasty and not overloaded with green color. Their Double Gloucester (both with and without chives) is excellent, too.

-Paul W.

My local supermarket (Market Basket) is carrying both chorizo and Portuguese-style chourico from Gaspari. Apparently the disappearance of the latter was only temporary.

-Paul W.