One of my favorite bloggers, A Girl Named PJ, did a link round up this week that included one that caught my eye: The Awful Reign of the Red Delicious
I have always wondered who actually eats these lackluster tasting apples and was actually just contemplating my husband’s choice to bring these home over all the other selections in Stew Leonard’s this past week. The article is fascinating, and now I think I have to question if Mike was eating with his eyes in this case. (side note: I don’t think he has eaten any of the apples he bought!)
I find it fascinating that so much of the food we eat shows almost no resemblance to the food our grandparents ate. I distinctly remember my grandfather lamenting the demise of the bananas he grew up on, and it turns out, it wasn’t just the ramblings of a funny (and totally awesome) old man. The Gros Michel banana was nearly wiped out by a fungus in the 50s, so very few of them exist now. So now we eat the Cavendish variety, which is just as susceptible to a wide-spread wipe out since they are all genetic clones. Fascinating.
Rumor has it that the fake banana flavoring we know today is based upon the Gros Michel banana. And one of my favorite guilty pleasures is banana flavored runts. So it makes me very curious about it. And is it really known as “Big Mike” or is this a funny add-on in Wikipedia?
How do I get my hands on a Gros Michel banana?
And please… no more Red Delicious… it’s Honeycrisp season afterall!
