IT’S RED BUT IS IT “DELICIOUS?”
Tasty Origins
As I was about to chomp down on the apple I had just plucked off the tree, I also was about to sink my teeth into over one-hundred and twenty-five years of history. You see this was no ordinary apple, but a Red Delicious apple. Nothing special about Red Delicious, you think — yes, it has been among the leading commercial apple varieties in the world, surpassed about twenty-five years ago by Gala. Ah, but the particular Red Delicious apple in my hand was the original Red Delicious, THE Red Delicious.
Hawkeye, the original Red Delicious; page from my book “Fruit: From the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection“
Let’s backtrack a minute to the origin of this particular apple which, incidentally, you’re not apt to be able to reach for on a grocer’s shelf anywhere these days. The year was 1872. The place was Peru — Peru, Iowa.
Here we are at the farm of Jesse Hiatt, and here’s an apple tree, one that sprouted from some seed dropped here by chance. Read more
