What a neat man and great story! Why Your Supermarket Only Sells 5 Kinds of Apples And one man's quest to bring hundreds more back. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/ ... e?slide=10
Sadly,we have the same old story on this side of the pond as well,Bunkie :-| Happily though our Royal Horticultural Society and numerous other charitable institutions have taken up the same cause as the man in your article and are trying to reestablish the heritage varieties. I don't know about you but I have never found a Golden Delicious which has even remotely lived up to its name I suppose the problem with the supermarkets and apples (as with every other commodity) is that they want total control over the shape,size,supply etc etc or the apples don't fit the picture that they build up of what a consumer wants... steps off soap-box...
Isn't it amazing the number of those horrid red apples they claim as "delicious" apples. I have never had an apple as tasteless as one of these. I can't believe people buy them and the orchards keep planting and selling them. Pink Lady, honey crisp, gala...all taste like apples, individual and unique, but not the "red delicious".
Store apples are rather pathetic and tasteless at best. AND they are way over priced! The Rome apples, and gala are okay. The red delicious are usually spoiled by the time they reach local grocery stores. I cant stand the Granny Smith apples, and golden delicious are not so good. I used to have an old apple orchard here. I had the best tasting [even if they were not the prettiest] apples ever. I had Arkansas blacks, golden Grimes, a nice Winesap or Jonathan apple, and one that was little a pretty candy apple red and very sweet. I used to cut them up in slices for the freezer, or make applesauce with them, and I gave lots away because I could not can them up fast enough when they were all ripe. Unfortunately, those old trees all died off and had to be cut down. I had to plant other trees in my orchard instead, because good apple trees are hard to find and afford. I planted some a few years ago, they just keeled over dead despite my best efforts.
Well you learn something new every day. We prefer granny smith and my kids eat them like crazy. But id love to try something different, besides what's at the farmers market.