Steve wrote:


Cloy Tobola wrote:

Any answers/comments are appreciated....

1. When I was a kid, we got "Red Delicious" apples that were. They had
just a hint of green and were firm, tart and wonderful. In the last 10
years (at least), I've noticed that the Red Delicious apples I buy at
the store are soft, yellow and mealy. My mom and a friend noticed the
same thing.
Various other places on the Usenet, I've seen people decrying the
RD apple for it's poor texture and flavor... but they weren't always
that way. What happened to this variety?

2.



I don't have a guess about question #2 but I do have some comments about
#1.

I've read stories about the history of the Red Delicious apple a couple
of times over the years and I found it interesting. I'll try to tell
some of it from memory. I may not have every fact perfect but the
general idea will be there....

First of all, nobody called them RED delicious until decades later when
an unrelated apple came to be named Golden Delicious. Before that they
were just called Delicious. The apple that came to be the most widely
grown variety in the world almost was lost more than once.
The original tree came up as a seedling near some other apple trees on
the property of a farmer in Iowa in the 1860s. He didn't want another
tree, at least not in that location, so he cut it down. It sprouted back
up the next year and he cut it down again. When it grew back yet again,
he let it grow for some reason. Maybe he just didn't around to cutting
it down again?
Anyway, he let it grow and when it produced the first apples, they were
really good. The apple was a bright red with streaks of green to yellow
(not at all like the deep dark ones we usually see now). He ended up
naming the variety "Hawkeye" and enjoyed the the fruit for many years.
He probably shared scions with friends and neighbors but otherwise, it
was only known locally.
The big break came in the 1890s when Stark Nurseries sponsored an apple
contest. A small box of Hawkeyes were sent to Missouri for the contest.
It won the contest and Mr. Stark named it delicious. There was yet
another chance for it to be lost because they lost the name and address
of the farmer who sent in the apples. They held the same contest the
next year and just hoped the same apples would be sent in again. Luckily
they were and they quickly made the trip to Iowa to talk to the farmer.
The Stark nursery sold the Delicious variety nation wide with great
success.

So what went wrong? The tree seems to produce sports rather easily ...
or maybe it was just that there were millions of trees and genetic
mistakes just happened. Commercial growers got a better price if they
sold the apples earlier than most others. Some of the sports/mutations
had thicker, darker red skin. Some produced the red color long before
the apple was really ripe. If apples look good, they will sell in the
stores whether they are good or not.
Years ago there were over 60 cultivars of the original Delicious
available. Probably more by now. (Not seed grown. Seeds of a named
variety produce a new variety that needs a new name.) They were probably
all selected for their appearance, not flavor.

There are people who claim to have the original cultivar. Others claim
the real original is extinct but they have one that is very close. If
you want to know what a Delicious is supposed to taste like, you may
have to find one of these trees and grow it yourself. I've never tasted
one of these myself but my parents have one that is an older cultivar
that still has some of the stripes and bright red (not dark red). Those
are actually quite good when tree ripened as they should be.

Steve in the Adirondacks



Ha! I'm sitting here at the computer with the TV on behind me. Jeopardy
is on and I hear Alex reading a clue. I don't know that I heard it all
but I heard him say Red Delicious and then Hawkeye and "originally found
here". We all knew that one.... right? Of course, Ken Jennings knew to
answer "what is Iowa".
A minute later he guessed that Cleveland was located on Lake Michigan,
proving that he doesn't know everything. :-)

Steve