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The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#51
post #17
post #12

Interesting read, I have always preferred green apples to red apples. I even distinctly remember a day in kindergarten where we did a taste test - almost everyone in the class picked the green apples. I had never really understood why red apples were so popular, I hadn't realized there was a dominant type of red apple or what it's backstory was. I'll have to try a Honey Crisp or Gala next time I'm at the supermarket.

Fujis are also delicious, and very widely available.

My experience in recent times has been that Gala are a lot more reliable than Fuji.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#52
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local news to the rescue! (= * Why Honeycrisp apples are so expensive - YouTube || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4eQX2vZ_Zg * The Story Behind Honeycrisps, America's First Brand-Name Apple || http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a20018/honeycrisp-pri... And look, hope for better apples on the horizon! * Washington Apple Growers Sink Their Teeth Into The New Cosmic Crisp : The Salt : NPR || http://www.npr.org/sec…

The new Cosmic Crisp sounds so good, and they're going to absolutely flood the market this year.

From the article, it says they won't show up in grocery stores until 2019.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#53
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't think so, at least not of necessity. I lived next to a small apple orchard for a while as a kid, and in a tumbledown hovel with chipboard walls at that; the trees belonged to the same farmer who rented us the place, who certainly wasn't any more a member of any elite anywhere than we ourselves were.

Privilege comes in many different forms. 90% of the population doesn't have that kind of access.

Yeah, it was a real privilege for a kid and his single mom to be living well below the poverty line in a three-room shack that any half-awake inspector would've immediately condemned - not least for the black mold that ate up one whole wall of the third room so we had to seal it off with plastic - because it happened to sit on a hill next to a tiny patch of half-gone-to-seed apple trees that produced maybe as much as a half bushel in a season, the whole being owned by a former truck farmer whose income consisted in no inconsiderable part of the pitiful rent he got for the place, and who barely afforded the property taxes that left unpaid would've had the lot of us indigent.

I understand that the rhetoric of privilege isn't intended as personal attack, or at least that that's not its ostensible intent. I wish more people who favored it understood that, however intended, personal attack is the way it comes across, and that makes it unhelpful - indeed, actively harmful, if the purpose is to promote sympathy, among those not so predisposed, for those philosophies in whose service the rhetoric is invariably deployed.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#54
post #2

I HATED Red Delicious as a kid! Honey Crisp Apples are the best tasting apples I have ever eaten but they cost almost triple the price. Pink Ladies are also phenomenal. My 6 and 10 year old like them better then candy.

They're not always available, but I've found that I like Envy apples almost as much as Honey Crisp. And when they show up in stores, Envy tends to be quire a bit cheaper.

Their availability might depend on location, though. I only see them in Toronto for 2-3 months every year.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#55

Red Delicious apples are horrible. Pink Ladies if you can find them, Honeycrisp if you can't.

I don't really get the love for Honeycrisps. I mean, they're better than Red Deliciouses, sure. But they're still too... blandly sweet, I guess, for my tastes. I like Pink Ladies, and I like Granny Smiths. That sharper, more acidic taste, I suppose.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#56
post #24

The article seems oriented toward raw consumption, I like to experiment with food canning and I've made many single variety batches of applesauce to experiment with. Pure grannies are a little acidic to me. My kids like red delicious applesauce, for something thats basically sweet with a texture its not bad. Ida Red results in an extremely pale nearly white applesauce which is interesting looking but the taste is bor…

I've made apple sauce a few times for near-immediate consumption (over the course of maybe a week). There is a big, notable difference in taste and quality from the store-bought. Might be time to try canning it for longer term consumption. However, stores near here do carry a no sugar added bottle of applesauce. That's all we ever buy, and I can't imagine why they would even consider adding sugar/corn syrup. I like m…

Studies show that sugar and salt increase consumption. So they add these things to increase sales. People aren't making a decision that's in their best interest, this is a biological hack that favors one party disproportionately compared to the other.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#57
post #24

The article seems oriented toward raw consumption, I like to experiment with food canning and I've made many single variety batches of applesauce to experiment with. Pure grannies are a little acidic to me. My kids like red delicious applesauce, for something thats basically sweet with a texture its not bad. Ida Red results in an extremely pale nearly white applesauce which is interesting looking but the taste is bor…

We make apple sauce using our pressure cooker from the tart apples that grow in our area and freeze it instead of canning it. The taste is phenomenal, rendering store-bought inedible.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? If they're shipping Pink Ladies from New Zealand, and there's an efficient market, can't we imply that it's a better allocation of resources to get Pink Ladies from New Zealand? I mean, they're probably cheaper _even though_ they're getting shipped halfway across the world. What the market is saying is that: the highly skilled population of Germany is probably better off doing more advanced things than growing a…

I think that the reasoning against shipping apples across the globe is that consumers do not pay the full price; one might argue that the transportation is subsidised by our extraction and burning of oil at a rate much quicker than it is formed

Hmmm, I can get behind the idea that oil isn't priced appropriately given it's externalities, but I would've focused on CO2, with a carbon tax being the solution, rather than looking at the rate at which oil is reformed.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#59
post #24

The article seems oriented toward raw consumption, I like to experiment with food canning and I've made many single variety batches of applesauce to experiment with. Pure grannies are a little acidic to me. My kids like red delicious applesauce, for something thats basically sweet with a texture its not bad. Ida Red results in an extremely pale nearly white applesauce which is interesting looking but the taste is bor…

We make apple sauce using our pressure cooker from the tart apples that grow in our area and freeze it instead of canning it. The taste is phenomenal, rendering store-bought inedible.

Growing up this is how we had apple sauce. It is so delicious and makes store bought totally unappealing. My mom made hers quite chunky making it ideally as a topping for homemade vanilla ice cream.

Re: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious (2014)

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? If they're shipping Pink Ladies from New Zealand, and there's an efficient market, can't we imply that it's a better allocation of resources to get Pink Ladies from New Zealand? I mean, they're probably cheaper _even though_ they're getting shipped halfway across the world. What the market is saying is that: the highly skilled population of Germany is probably better off doing more advanced things than growing a…

I think that the reasoning against shipping apples across the globe is that consumers do not pay the full price; one might argue that the transportation is subsidised by our extraction and burning of oil at a rate much quicker than it is formed

You are probably paying that price no matter what - if you want apples out of season, you either have to keep them in a coolstore for months, or ship them from another part of the world where they are in season. It could be that buying local apples that are 6 months old has a higher impact than shipping them.
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