I recommend the Pippin apple.
Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
151–160 of 257 posts
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry to tell you tomatoes are flavourless in Europe as well.
I lived almost 7 years in Germany, and the average tomato at a supermarket was lightyears beyond the US. Then farmers markets are even better.
I lived almost 7 years in the USA, and the average tomato at a supermarket was lightyears beyond Germany. Then farmers markets are even better.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#153imo 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.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#154Earlier 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.
> you too can harvest $5 worth of tomatoes Your attitude is the problem - DONT equate $5 of supermarket tomatoes with an equivalent weight of home grown tomatoes. I go out of my way to buy “expensive” tomatoes, because I don’t think of good tomatoes as being cheap produce, but more like an expensive vegetable (although price is still seasonal).
My attitude? I love gardening and growing my own vegetables. It is a simple truth, and the numbers don't lie. It gives me pleasure and enjoyment to do it. So the "entertainment" factor alone is worth it.
At the end of the day for new people trying gardening, it can be a bit disappointning. To make it all 100% magical panacea without actual realization of monetary factors, you're not being honest with potential new growers.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#155I 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…
I read an article about the creator of the Honey Crisp and Cosmic Crisp. He chose a different licensing model that gives him more control for the Cosmic Crisp because according to him farmers tended to prefer the better looking, red apples which over time negatively impact what trees they'd use and how apples tasted even within the same variety. I'm not sure I understand the argument on a biological level fully, sinc…
Honey Crisp are my favourite when they don't taste like dirt.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone can grow a pot of heirloom tomatoes outside in the summertime and end up with tomatoes that blow everything at the supermarket out of the water, if you can manage the pests. You can get pretty great produce at certain farmers markets, too.
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.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#157Earlier 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.
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
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#158As 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…
Regarding pick your own orchards, I don't know where you are but here in central MA most of the pick you own business is from tourists. Us locals just buy apples already picked at the farm store for less money. The farmers make the tourists buy the empty bags, not the apples, so they've already paid before they even pick a single apple. Neither taste nor looks really have anything to do with it. It's more about which farm puts on the best 'show'. Some of the farms are also very nasty about eating apples while out picking and will kick the tourists out if they catch them.
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's a good cucumber alternative and how do I get a hold of it?
https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/cucumbers Bakers Creek only sells heirloom seeds (no cultivars). I get most of my garden seeds from them as they have the lineage of the seeds they sell available.
Heirloom varieties (more properly “open pollinated”) are themselves cultivars, which just means something that was selected/bred/domesticated.
I think you’re trying to get at “hybrids” (which just means the breeding isn’t stable, i.e., the next generation isn’t first red to match the parents, but even hybrids can be quite tasty.
The issue isn’t the breeding process per se; the issue is selectively breeding for the wrong things (or a single thing instead of a mix of things).
Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible
#160I live in the "Apple Capital of the World", had to learn about apples my whole life. I'm not sure its a fair to make blanket statements about red delicious apples as many are not cloned/grafted, so the taste varies from producer to producer. The big name varieties of apples now are all copyright/trademark and grown via grafting, making output control much easier. Many of the older red del orchards are old and no longer profitable due to modern day orchard planting and management being much more advanced. As those orchards get replaced they get replanted or grafts from a currently more profitable variety are put into them. A reasonable amount of new varieties are growing on stumps/roots that once produced red delicious fruits.
Rave and Ambrosia are the two variants Stemilt is pushing hard these days.
the average now is around 12 years before they switch the varieties and put new grafts on a stump. seven years to get back to full production size, 5 years of product and then switch. the apple varieties being marketed today have been in the works for near a decade or more.