[Sca-cooks] Historical Apples - substitutions for

[Huette von Ahrens]

But it is also how ripe they were when they were picked.  The majority of all fruit that you find in the major supermarkets were picked before they were ripe, then gassed to make them look ripe.  I believe that this also has a hand in the mealiness of Delicious apples.  A cousin of mine is a farmer in Milton-Freewater, Oregon.  Up until a few years ago, he had a large orchard growing both Golden and Red Delicious apples.  Many years ago, my family went on vacation in September on a three week car trip to visit various relatives of our in the Pacific Northwest.  We spent a couple of days with this cousin and when we left, he gave us two huge boxes of freshly picked, tree ripened apples of both varieties.  The apples stayed in their boxes for another two weeks, before we got home.  Once home, Mom and I began a marathon apple canning stint.  We canned apple slices, apple butter and apple sauce.  We made apple pies and apple pan dowdy.  And we ate fresh
 apples daily.  Even one month after picking, those apples remained crisp, juicy and flavorful while fresh.  Not a hint of mealiness.  I know that Delicious apples are truly delicious when picked ripe off the tree.  But I believe that when picked green, gassed to look ripe and stored to long, they become mealy, flavorless and yechy.

I also know from experience that apricots are truly wonderful, sweet and flavorful when picked ripe off the tree.  The apricots you buy at your supermarket are hard, acidic and tasteless, because they are picked green and gassed to look ripe.  Up until last week, we had a huge apricot tree in our back yard.  It consistently produced wonderful apricots that were true ambrosia.  Unfortunately, the tree, after forty years of life, secumbed to a bad fungal infection and died.  Its replacement is being researched as I write this.  We also had a bad infestation of bark beetle and have lost two peach trees and several other ornamental trees.  Next week, we are having our yard sprayed to remove the pest.  However, I plan to replace these trees with more fruit trees, including peach, apple, cherry, plum, the afformentioned apricot and possibly an almond tree.  The only tree that has not been affected is out 100 year old pecan tree.  An arborist and a pest control
 expert says that it is triving well and can resist such problems.

Huette



--- On Wed, 10/29/08, ranvaig at columbus.rr.com <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com> wrote:

> From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Historical Apples - substitutions for
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 5:55 AM
> >Differences between the red delicious of today and 30
> years ago isn't genetic - it's root stock choice,
> growing conditions, and (like wine) terrior.
> 
> I suspect that a bigger difference is how fresh they are
> when they reach you.  Just because apples can be stored
> doesn't mean that they will taste the same.  Someone
> already commented that Red Delicious become mealy very
> quickly
> 
> Ranvaig
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org