Adam's Apples

Which of these apples is a 150-year-old heirloom? is from a local (Massachusetts) orchard? is commonly sold in supermarkets and grocery stores across North America? If you've been reading my blog you know the answer. You also know that this is a trick question.

Take number 2, this time with a local Red Delicious. America gets its fruit at the supermarket, and that determines what we eat and what farmers grow. So I thought it fair and reasonable to compare these apples using a store-bought Red Delicious. Which I did .

A Red Delicious , once America's apple, fresh from the supermarket. Hint: It's the tall one on the left. And the fabled Hawkeye , a seedling found growing on a Quaker's Iowa farm nearly 150 years ago. Here from an Indiana orchard. But surely you know the story that connects these apples.

IF THEE MUST GROW, THEE MAY  ¶  I never thought to taste this apple, discovered by a farmer in Iowa nearly 150 years ago. It has been superseded by history. Hawkeye was purchased by Stark Brothers and then modified by sport after sport to be nearly unrecognizable. You surely know it, as Red Delicious .

I may have been a bit hard on Red Delicious earlier. I've never hidden my tastes, and there are more than a few apples that don't thrill me. But my actual feeling is, the more varieties the better, whether or not they are my personal favorites. In that respect, the story of Red Delicious is a cautionary tale. Since its discovery more than a century ago, Red Delicious (originally "Hawkeye") has been mercilessly tweaked by breeders, growers, and market forces to produce the elongated bright red fruit we know today.  These are beautiful, indestructible, shippable, commercial, and tasteless. And, we love them. Or did.