North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Grapple or Grape-L

Two things that tie to this.  There is a product marketed as a bird repellant that is essentially pure methyl anthranylate, the substance that gives Concord (and other labrusca grapes) it's smell/flavor.  That sounds odd, but there are fruit eating species that don't eat labrusca, so a grape that smells like one would repel them.

Second, Larry McGraw, founder of the Home Orchard Society once showed me how he had wrapped apples in tissue that was permeated with the scent of honey, and when the apples came out of storage, they smelled and tasted of honey.  Larry is a beekeeper and the tissues came between sheets of foundation wax.  For non-beekeepers, foundation wax is sheets of beeswax imprinted with the hexagonal shapes of honeycomb cells.  One sheet is put in a frame as a "guide" to insure that the bees build straight, smooth, easily handled comb.  Otherwise, the bees might build the combs in ways that would make them impossible to remove without tearing them out.  The tissue paper, used to keep the foundation wax from sticking to itself in the box, picks up the honey aroma of the wax.

Point of all this is that it wouldn't be hard to either use packing material infused with methyl anthranylate or to even "mist" it in the coolers to "flavor" the apples.  The producers of "Grapples" are keeping quiet because it wouldn't be that hard to duplicate if someone else caught on.  Apples pick up all sorts of flavors in storage.  That's one reason you don't store them in root cellars unless you pack them in some kind of tight container - they will taste like dirt after a while.
-Lon Rombough


> Grapples are currently being test marketed with the plan to distribute them nation-wdie in the Fall.  They are Fuji apples enhanced with Concord grape flavor.  Here is what the Daily Camera in Boulder has to say about them...
> http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/county_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2423_2903298,00.html
> "They're not gassed or injected or mutated. They're bathed for several days in a patented, natural grape formula whose specifics spokespeople didn't want to release. 
>
> Blair McHaney, co-owner of Get Fit Foods, said he has received a 92 percent favorable response to the fruit on an online feedback forum. The biggest fans: Kids bored with Mother Nature.
>
> Their makers, Washington-based C&O Nursery and Get Fit Foods, have since sold a half-million four-packs. "
>
> -Mark Lee, Seattle