- At the supermarket near his home in central Virginia, Tom Burford likes to loiter by the display of Red Delicious. He waits until he spots a store manager. Then he picks up one of the glossy apples and, with a flourish, scrapes his fingernail into the wax: T-O-M.
“We can’t sell that now,” the manager protests.
To which Burford replies, in his soft Piedmont drawl: “That’s my point.”
Exact same feeling here: I never wanted those bloody apples in my lunches. Though now I will eat the shit out of McIntoshes.
They're awful as far as apples go. I have been on a Pink Lady kick for several years now, they taste wonderful and they juice really well. I think they actually look much more appealing than Red Delicious too.
Not a fan of the "grain" myself. I'll try a Jazz apple the next time I see one. -I've not tried one.
Jazz is my favourite apple also. Very crisp, juicy, and sweet.
Developed in NZ by the way :-)
I used to work with a guy that played up his machismo for fun. One day I had two Pink Lady apples on me and offered him one. He replied: "I won't eat an apple. I'm a man." I didn't even get to the Pink Lady part. I pulled out a dry-eraser marker and his phrase went to the top of my board.
Really pulling out the literary flourishes, there, arentcha.It lurks in desolation. Bumped around the bottom of lunch bags as schoolchildren rummage for chips or shrink-wrapped Rice Krispies treats. Waiting by the last bruised banana in a roadside gas station, the only produce for miles. Left untouched on hospital trays, forlorn in the fruit bowl at hotel breakfast buffets, bereft in nests of gift-basket raffia.
1) I actually like Red Delicious. There's nothing wrong with them. I find most apples are too sour and a fresh Red Delicious is not bad food. I prefer pears anyway but that's another matter. 2) It takes 3 years before an apple tree bears any fruit; 7 before it bears enough to break even on harvesting. Meanwhile, there's no upper age on apple trees like there are on some other orchard crops. Those red delicious trees planted back in the 1890s are still producing apples. So while there has undoubtedly been grafting and selection and other shit associated with making the red delicious less delicious, a tree planted in 1990 is currently in its absolute prime. 3) Now you know why cider became a thing. The farmers will wait you out, fickle rejectors of heirloom fruit. Expecting an orchard crop to bend to the whims of fashion is folly at its finest.
Ah yes, I vaguely remember a documentary on Netflix about monoculture that went into the origins of cider, coming from the rather non-delicious nature of wild apples.