North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

I just re-read Tom's query and realize he meant the opposite to what 
I first thought.  He thinks that people who grow up eating 
store-bought apples get used to sour apples, or at least less-sweet 
ones.  I think just the opposite.

We used to eat apples as soon as they got big enough to bite into. 
Yellow Transparent was the common summer apple, and they never had a 
chance to get sweet as the kids would eat them before they ripened. 
We were not as welcome to eat the later apples from the trees, but we 
could have the windfalls. Grownups would always warn us that we'd get 
a stomachache, but we never did.

Just plain sweet is boring, but now I don't mind a bit of sweetness 
with the sour, as long as the apple is crisp and juicy too.

                Diane