The Macs vs. the (honey) Crips

Last week the Evil Fruit Lord, proprietor of the Fruit Blog, woke from his hiatus and posted a link to an entertaining news story about up-and-coming, waiting-in-the-wings apple varieties. Welcome back, lord of evil fruit, and did you see your shadow?

Buried in the article was this tidbit:

By 2005, the province of Nova Scotia was offering subsidies to anyone who ripped out their McIntosh fields and replaced them with Honeycrisps.

So, fruit-on-fruit violence? Honeycrisp moving in on McIntosh turf? Ripping out old trees for the promise of gold years down the road?

Talk about evil fruit!

If you've read my Honeycrisp review you can imagine how much I am not happy about this. McIntosh is a noble apple and, please note, a native Canadian, unlike the sugar bomb from Minnesota. O, Canada!

And for goodness sakes, what possible interest does the Province of Nova Scotia have in pushing Honeycrisps? Does the government get a kickback or something?

Sure, farmers are in business and can't afford to be sentimental; some might decide to replace some trees, but let the market decide this one, okay?

Honeycrisp is very popular today, but public taste is fickle and there's no guarantee something newer won't be in vogue by the time these new trees start bearing.

If nothing else, the harvest from these and other new trees will certainly drive the market price of the fruit down from the premium that Honeycrisp commands in the market today. (And where's your windfall then?)

On a happier note, the article does imply a growing interest by the public in new apple tastes and varieties.