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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Red Delicious

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  • From: Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Red Delicious
  • Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 6:58:52 -0400

I can't believe I'm coming to the defense of the red delicious, but here
goes:

The very first time I had a red delicious was at my grandmother's house. It
was a large showy apple with prominent points on the bottom. I didn't like
it, and told her the name was a lie, it might be a red beauty, but it
certainly wasn't delicious.

But since then I've had a number of perfectly okay red delicious apples.
The weren't fully red and had less prominent points, and were picked in pyo
orchards. And the crisp yellow flesh was sweet and slightly aromatic,
although lacking the acid balance I prefer in an apple. My brother, who
doesn't like tart food, once told me it was his favorite apple. (I sent
him a box of honeycrisp as soon as they became commercially available.)

So I think the older, less red cultivars, properly grow, are as good as
many of the 'sweet' apples on the market today. It's just that too many
people have too much experince with the showy, fruit-basket type, or with
stale mealy ones.

In general, the 'best' sweet apple on the market today is Honeycrisp. Of
course, 'best' is subjective, but honeycrisp's ability to maintain its
crunch in the back of a household fridge for months gives it a huge
advantage over most of the other sweet, mild-flavored apples. They are
being planted in enormous quantities, and perhaps low-quality honey crisps
grown in places too warm for them will reduce consumer expectations enough
to keep a market for other sweet apples. And maybe some consumers like a
softer apple. But I think red delicious has started down the path of
becoming a 'heritage' apple that people get at old orchords, or seek out to
taste what their grandmother tasted. Those will likely be the smaller,
tastier versions, and our children will wonder why that apple dropped out
of production.
___
Ginda





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