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Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

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Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#161

Post by quesera »

gowan wrote: post #153

imo the granny smith is the all time worse apple. always taste like a green apple (not trying to be ironic) and usually has a thick skin. just plain terrible might as well pick any apple variety before it is ripe. if you want a good green apple buy a newtown pippin.

I like 'em crisp and tart (and cold), so Granny Smith from the refrigerator is my default.

I recall Newtown Pippins being a bit sweeter than I like, but I understand they vary. Is there a time of year, or another way to select for tartness?

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#162

Post by dylan604 »

quesera wrote: post #156
dylan604 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After shelling out ~$50-$100 for intitial setup, you too can harvest $5 worth of tomatoes! And as you say, if you can keep the pests free, but that also requires for money to add to that inital purchase. The insect/worms/catepillars in my area are more vicious than rodent invasions. If you get catepillars, they can wipe out an entire plant in a day.

$50-100 is way overestimated. You can grow tomatoes in inexpensive pots. Seedlings are inexpensive. Maybe $15 total, plus water, time, and patience. The latter two of those can be expensive, but difficult to quantify.

Tomatoes get big. They need a decent sized pot. I would recommend a 12" pot, defintely no smaller than 10".[0] Dirt aint cheap. "Cheap as dirt" wasn't formed from shopping at garden centers with bagged dirt, and you don't need a truck load for container gardening.[1] Tomoatoes need up right supports like cages, etc.[2] Seedlings are cheap individually, but each one needs a container.[3]

[0] $10 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pennington-12-in-Terra-Cotta-Cla...

[1] $5 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Miracle-Gro-Moisture-Control-8-q...

[2] $5 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Glamos-Wire-Products-54-in-Plant...

[3] $4 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bonnie-Plants-19-3-oz-Early-Girl...

That's one plant, and we're at $25.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#163

Post by orky56 »

axguscbklp wrote: post #63
wombatmobile wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Australia the supermarket apples can be excellent. Tasty, crisp, juicy, sweet/tart, consistently reliable, and beautiful to look at. Do you have Jazz apples? They are the best.

I do not think I have ever seen a Jazz apple here in the states, but I would love to try one.

I'm addicted to them. I get them from Trader Joe's here in southern California.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#164

Post by nicoburns »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #109
vanderZwan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that means you had them in a Mediterranean country, because elsewhere in Europe they still are rather bland in my (northern European) opinion

Yes this is the key. Most of Europe is in the same boat. Eating produce in Greece however is astoundingly better. Italy was less consistent on this but still better. Which leads me to wonder if its really the genetic choices or is it just something about the farming, nutritional rich soils, or transportation/timing?

France is good for tomatoes too. I think it's definitely partly about local availability. But probably also a bit to do with cultural consumer choices too. France/Italy/Greece all have big food cultures in a way that isn't quite matched by northern European countries.

That said, it seems to be getting easier to get high quality vegetables (including tomatoes) here in the UK. It's not from a supermarket and you pay more, but it is available (maybe still not quite as good as other countries, but certainly much improved on the flavourless stuff).

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#165

Post by nicoburns »

happymellon wrote: post #131
dathinab wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like trademark but instead of: "only this company can decide who can use the trademark" It's like: "only if it's production fulfills certain criteria can you use the name" It's made as a consumer protection so that people can not just claim their product is this kind of "traditional" product when it isn't. Except that it's less used like a consumer protection as it's mainly used like a trademark. Controlled by a…

It's a shame that Cheddar doesn't have good protection. Real cheddar is full of flavour, slightly sour. Great stuff. But you can go to places like the US and cheddar is not cheddar and they should not be allowed to call that cheddar.

"West Country Cheddar" is protected. I doubt you can get that in the US very easily though.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#166

Post by jader201 »

I used to love apples. Until I realized that most of the ones I would buy ended up being mealy. It was like rolling dice as to whether one would be mealy.

Maybe it’s because we started buying organic? We got some apples one time that weren’t organic, and they were great.

If organic apples are too susceptible to being mealy, I guess I’d rather just eat other organic fruits vs. eating non-organic apples.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#167

Post by quesera »

dylan604 wrote: post #162
quesera wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$50-100 is way overestimated. You can grow tomatoes in inexpensive pots. Seedlings are inexpensive. Maybe $15 total, plus water, time, and patience. The latter two of those can be expensive, but difficult to quantify.

Tomatoes get big. They need a decent sized pot. I would recommend a 12" pot, defintely no smaller than 10".[0] Dirt aint cheap. "Cheap as dirt" wasn't formed from shopping at garden centers with bagged dirt, and you don't need a truck load for container gardening.[1] Tomoatoes need up right supports like cages, etc.[2] Seedlings are cheap individually, but each one needs a container.[3] [0] $10 https://www.homedepot.…

Well you're right that it doesn't scale down to single pots.

When I grew tomatoes in containers, I went for the 5-gal buckets from Lowes ($4), and bought soil in larger bags. Also your cage is more expensive than I recall paying.

On the plus side, most of those are one-time startup costs.

Our tomatoes are self-seeding at this point. We literally do nothing except pick them, and put away several dozen jars of sauce every year, from a couple neglected garden beds. It sounds like we have less trouble with pests here than you do though.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#169

Post by dylan604 »

quesera wrote: post #167
dylan604 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomatoes get big. They need a decent sized pot. I would recommend a 12" pot, defintely no smaller than 10".[0] Dirt aint cheap. "Cheap as dirt" wasn't formed from shopping at garden centers with bagged dirt, and you don't need a truck load for container gardening.[1] Tomoatoes need up right supports like cages, etc.[2] Seedlings are cheap individually, but each one needs a container.[3] [0] $10 https://www.homedepot.…

Well you're right that it doesn't scale down to single pots. When I grew tomatoes in containers, I went for the 5-gal buckets from Lowes ($4), and bought soil in larger bags. Also your cage is more expensive than I recall paying. On the plus side, most of those are one-time startup costs. Our tomatoes are self-seeding at this point. We literally do nothing except pick them, and put away several dozen jars of sauce ev…

My original post said ~$50-$100 in initial setup, so you're not being fair to my original post. You need multiples of the things or similarly functioning things as posted. Yes, buying bigger bags of dirt is an option, or cheap plastic pots. If you're going to be doing this, you'll appreciate the clay pots as they don't bet brittle from UV exposure. I prefer clay as I just dislike plastic.

It's a typical reaction when suggestions that gardening can be more expensive than people realize. Yes, if you use the same pots, start taking seeds generationally, etc the price amortizes to near $0. That first year though can put a dent in a wallet. If you've been doing it for awhile, it's easy to forget.

We haven't even discussed getting into drip irrigation or similar. Each of the individual parts are cheap (tubing, sprayers/drippers, etc), but again it adds up with a timer etc.

To be abundantly clear, I'm not trying to dissuade anyone, but just giving realistic expectations. It's just like getting into Arduino and what not. The controller itself is cheap. The shields are cheap. Electronic components are cheap. Then you add up all your receipts and realize, you've spent more money than originally anticipated. It's just the nature of DIY.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#170

Post by 3minus1 »

dotcommand wrote: post #149
jefftk wrote: post #99

Since apples are propagated by grafting (cloning), has anyone kept original ("heirloom"?) Red Delicious stock from before it was optimized for looks? I'd be very curious to try one!

I recently watched a youtube video about why avocados cannot be grown by seed and learned about grafting. Interesting stuff. Didn't know apples also were grown through grafting.

There's an interesting discussion in Gun, Germs, and Steel where Jared Diamond claims that wild apples were inedible (IIRC due to cyanide in the seeds) and could only be domesticated after the invention of grafting technology.
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