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Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

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Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#241

Post by Vrondi »

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.…

There do exist these things called "dwarf tomatoes". Also, a large pot and a few good cherry tomato seeds can blow away everything in a supermarket with little flavor bombs.

I have determinate dwarf tomato plants (3 feet tall max), which I grew from seed ($2.99), planted in old milk crates (free) lined with plastic from old bags (free) and filled from one huge bag of potting mix (~$20-30), and this gives me half a dozen plants that are superior to anything in a supermarket. I staked them with tree branches trimmed from my trees (free).

I have grown them in the actual ground many years, eliminating the cost of the potting mix, but after a few years, you need to let the soil lie fallow to avoid blights, so this year it's the milk crate planters.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#242

Post by Vrondi »

asdff wrote: post #118
mcv wrote: post #71

As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison. I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you…

This is interesting, because I think apple picking orchards and farmers markets have an advantage here over supermarkets and delivery services. For public orchards, the apples are bred for taste first and foremost. Everyone goes in expecting to see dusty apples, with many worms too, but its fine since that's how it is out in the countryside. Everyone is also eating apples constantly while out picking, even if encoura…

I found that over the years, the primary problem with Golden Delicious in my area is that in the stores, they are always still partially green. They pick them too soon, ship them green, and they never fully ripen properly.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#243

Post by pvaldes »

mcv wrote: post #71

As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison. I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you…

Golden delicious is a fine apple that is just out of fashion for its well known sins.

As all in its group, post-mature is mealy and bland, and before maturation is too acid, but freshly picked in the right month is a refreshing mix of acid/sweet in the right amounts. Really fine apple when in season.

But is really annoying to culture. Many of the best tasting apples are prone to fungus diseases that destroy its market value. GD is a sucker for skin diseases and the newer cultivars are better performers, so is in decline.

Apples in the kitchen burn its sugars to keep the fruit 'breathing' and the metabolism of the seeds working. The more time you have it, the more insipid.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#244

Post by pvaldes »

pvaldes wrote: post #243
mcv wrote: post #71

As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison. I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you…

Golden delicious is a fine apple that is just out of fashion for its well known sins. As all in its group, post-mature is mealy and bland, and before maturation is too acid, but freshly picked in the right month is a refreshing mix of acid/sweet in the right amounts. Really fine apple when in season. But is really annoying to culture. Many of the best tasting apples are prone to fungus diseases that destroy its marke…

The writer, on the other hand is not understanding the legacy impact that golden and red delicious have. Many of the best sold apples in the market like Fuji, Pink Lady or Rubinette descend directly from red and golden delicious

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#245

Post by pvaldes »

smegger001 wrote: post #45
koyote wrote: post #24

I think it's quite interesting that it's taken so long for a lackluster tasting food to decline in popularity. When I moved to the US from Western Europe, the relative difference in food quality was quite apparent and I distinctly remember noticing this first with the apples: At first I thought I might have chosen a bad batch, but after a couple of more buys I realised that these apples looked 'perfect' but always ta…

Its not just the perfect look that Red Delicious was bred for but shelf life. Those things take forever to rot compared to other apples and hide bruising, but they end up with dry mealy texture and very thick waxy skin. They were optimized for apple sellers not apple eaters.

Those are probably treated for remain 'indefinitely fresh'. Is a little dirt secret from apple markets. Is not genetics, is vegetable hormones sprayed on the skin. Just avoid them.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#246

Post by pvaldes »

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?

Forget about local markets. Most of the tomatoes eaten in Central Europe came from the 'sea of plastic' in the Mediterranean Spain and Morocco. Cultured from dutch seeds selected to grow really fast. Is a combination of long travel, green picked and so-so cultivars breed for market.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#247

Post by dunham »

GcVmvNhBsU wrote: post #238
dunham wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some counterfeit San Marzano out there too. Out on the west coast, I've been pretty happy with Muir Glen tomatoes.

Not to say you shouldn’t like Muir Glen, but this seems like the most appropriate place in this thread to drop this link: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/best-canned-tomatoes...

Always interested in trying new options, thanks.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#248

Post by ikr678 »

mcv wrote: post #71

As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison. I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you…

>I'd expect the only way to protect an apple from that fate, would be to trademark the name, and the rightsholder only licenses the name to apples from cultivars that breed for taste and don't sacrifice taste for looks.

>This might be a case where IP rights might be used for good.

Arent they doing that with the cosmic crisp?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#249

Post by matttproud »

Growing up in North America by the time I became an adult, I had written off apples in entirety for being dull balls of coagulated sand consistency material. It was lost on me why anyone would ever voluntarily eat one. It didn’t matter whether mass market or where.

Fast forward in life: two years after moving to Switzerland, I found myself hungry and desperate while on the road, expecting the worst. I ate one of the domestic varieties grown in Thurgau (der Apfelkanton or apple mecca). Absolutely blown away by the freshness and flavor profile.

My takeaway is whatever is calling whatever is sold in the US as an Apple is a crime. A similar thing happened to me here with milk (it didn’t have a lingering bleach or watered down aroma) and using buses for transit. I think North America scarred me.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#250

Post by happymellon »

dekhn wrote: post #157
happymellon wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

you can get good cheddar in the US. Here is a widely available brand which is much better than average US cheddar https://www.tillamook.com/products/cheese/sharp-white-chedda... aged cheddar is nom nom nom

I will have to try it next time over there, but please don't be offended when I say that based upon all the cheeses I have eaten over there I won't be holding my breath.
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