Monday, July 19, 2010

Is the Red Delicious or Eye Candy?


I’m on a broom. I work in a high school and there are a lot of vending machines. The machines make money for the student body for dances and assemblies and I have a problem with them best left to another rant. When I was a teenager the only vending machine we had was one which vended cold, crisp, juicy Red Delicious apples. It was nice at the end of the day to stop at the vending machine and get an apple for a dime to munch on the way home. I always liked Red Delicious apples and the fact that they were grown in Washington was handy.

Twenty years or more ago I noticed that Red Delicious weren’t so delicious anymore. They looked pretty, but they had no taste. Our household has long since switched its loyalty to Fuji and the occasional Gala apples. This morning I read a letter to the editor of Grit Magazine that explains why. According to former orchard owner Carol Coddington of Alexandria, Pennsylvania, the reason Red Delicious apples don’t taste as good as they used to is American public demand? Did we ask growers to great tasteless apples? No, but we did demand redder, more picture perfect apples. Apparently with apples you can’t entirely judge a book by its cover so those beauties that make for great pictures are more eye candy than taste treat. Now, says Coddington, growers are beginning to mess with Gala Apples. If they start messing with Fujis I’m going to be really mad! This is one more reason to eat locally. If you can find someone with an apple tree in their yard, bang on the door and ask if they will share or go to a local farmer’s market and buy direct from a small farmer. That’s the view from my broom.

3 comments:

Lorrene said...

When I went to school we didn't have vending machines. I would use part of my lunch money to buy an apple from the local grocery store. You are right, they just have to mess with stuff so it looks pretty and to heck with the taste. Feji and Gala are my favorite's too.

Stephanie Frieze said...

Well, don't get me started on vending machines at school! At least they took the pop out of our school, but they still have machines that vend snacks and Gatoraide, which is only a half step above pop. Besides there is a pop machine in the teahers' lounge and the security guard buys pop for students. We thought it was a big deal when in high school the kitchen got a milkshake machine. I was thunderstruck even then that they would sell milkshakes at school!

We need to beware of the genetically modified food out there. Growers are using GM seeds and Round-Up to cut their costs at the possible expense of our health as well as jobs for agricultural laborers.

Kim Thompson said...

couldn't agree more. Red Delicious tastes terrible and have for some time. Very sad.