North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Alan said:

"I completely agree that Yellow Delicious has suffered in flavor in the course of breeding the russetting out of it."

 

Here is a subject close to my heart.  We could get only 2 kinds of apples when I was a kid growing up in Florida.  Red D was of course inedible, so I became quite a connoisseur of the Golden.  I learned that the very best goldens  were quite yellow with some russeting, the more the better.  The last time I was able to select these superior goldens was in the Tennessee Valley in the late 80's at a produce stand in Lenoir City.  I'm sure if I looked hard enough for them, there are bound to be a few orchards that have them.  These days the russetting and the flavor seem to be gone.   

 

 

 

"Strangely it seems to have also become more attractive to plum curculio.  Unsprayed older strains of this variety are very often untouched by PC when newer strains are completely deformed on the same sites.  Too bad even the older strains don't taste quite good enough to me to replace harder to protect cultivars."

 

Unfortunately we have too many cedars to grow GD, but there was a terrific tree in town, the best flavor.  Unfortunately it has been cut down, like so many others.    Donna