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OPINION: An Apple a day

There is a lot of folklore, tradition and urban myth concerning apples and most of us have a history with this fruit. Teachers’ pets have always known the effect of a shiny, red apple on the corner of a desk on the first day of school.

There is a lot of folklore, tradition and urban myth concerning apples and most of us have a history with this fruit.

Teachers’ pets have always known the effect of a shiny, red apple on the corner of a desk on the first day of school.

Apples were popular Halloween treats until years ago when rumours of razor blades turned them into the forbidden fruit.

It is interesting to note that there has never been a single documented case of this ever happening anywhere but the apple’s reputation was forever damaged.

Apples enjoy a more favourable reputation in song and rhyme, an apple a day keeps the doctor away – perhaps that humble fruit’s most compelling reference.

I am happy to see the new crop of Canadian apples arriving from orchards across the country every year about this time.
I’m especially partial to the McIntosh because they remind me of when I was a kid and everybody would have a big cardboard box of B.C. Macs in the kitchen.

We were all snackin’ on Macs although every now and then a few Red Delicious would show up – hard as rock but sweet as candy.
We had those two apples to choose from and if they were out of season we might settle for an orange or a banana or sometimes a pear or a peach.

But now when I cruise the produce aisle looking for some Macs to take home, I can see many new varieties with catchy, exotic names like Rome Beauty and Winesap.

I see neatly stacked piles of Empire, Fuji, Ida Red and Jonagold and in other stores you might find Rhode Island Greening, Belle de Boskoop or Calville Blanc D’hiver.

The names of apples are getting as pretentious as dusty, old vintage wine.

Suddenly there are close to a dozen different kinds of apples, some a little redder or greener and some a little bigger or smaller but all apples just the same.

I don’t understand why we need that many and I’m thinking about that old saying differently – an apple a day.

What I see in the grocery store is just the tip of the iceberg – there are thousands of different apples grown in orchards around the world.

In fact, if I decided to eat a different apple every day, I wouldn’t see my doctor for about 20 years.

Worldwide, there are well over 7,000 different varieties grown – if I was a doctor I’d really be getting nervous.

That’s why I wasn’t all that excited by the big announcement from the University of Minnesota’s plant breeding department of yet another new apple.

The same people who brought Honeycrisp to grocery store shelves are pleased to announce the first ever offering of their new SweeTango apple.

As pompous as any wine snob, the breeders claim to be “developing apples that give you a memorable eating experience.”
Part Honeycrisp and part Zestar, the SweeTango is a blush apple with a deep red colouration over a yellow breaking background, described as explosively crisp.

That sounds pretty good, even to a long time Mac muncher like me, but there is something about this rising star apple that rubs me the wrong way.

The apple breeders in Minnesota claim that their new apple will replace the mighty McIntosh over time as the trees age and are replaced with SweeTango saplings.

Eventually, sadly, Macs will be designated a heritage breed and will be grown as curiosities in selected orchards – the fruit will be sold in specialty shops and craft markets.

Until then it will continue to be my apple a day.

 





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