The problem with fresh apples is not enough people are eating them. They’re too much trouble. You’ve got to peel them, slice them and get rid of the core. Compared with a strawberry or a bunch of seedless grapes, an apple is just a big bother, particularly for children waiting for the tooth fairy or wearing braces or old folks with wobbly dentures. And, once you start eating an apple, you feel you’ve got to finish it.

Thank Heaven. There are good folks coming to the rescue.

Farmers are asked (nicely) to grow apples that are exactly 3 1/2 inches in diameter. This is because supermarkets can cram the largest number of 3 1/2 inch apples into the smallest space while building a geometrically perfect display that won’t topple. A 3 1/2 inch was a big apple breakthrough. It followed the previous triumph in which apple trees were dwarfed to a uniform height that enables an apple picker to harvest the crop without having to climb up and down a ladder all day long. But that’s not all (as they say on those irritating TV commercials). Now we’re offered a re-sealable bag of pre-sliced apples that’ll keep in the refrigerator for three weeks without turning brown (according to the New York Times Magazine). Apples are becoming more like potato chips. You can eat them right out of the bag with one hand. No peel. No core. The not-so-good news is the price. It costs four bucks for a single pound of cut-up apples but just a tiny fraction of this amount if you cut them yourself (and they’re almost free if you can pick them from a local farm.) Apples don’t grow in the Arctic Circle but they do grow pretty much everywhere else. In these troubling economic times, it might be wise to invest in a sharp knife and cut the apple yourself. It’ll pay big dividends. The apple will taste better too.

By the way, as Mark Twain observed, “Adam was but human he did not want the apple for the apple’s sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden.”

1. Melissa Says:
   September 28th, 2007 at 11:43am

   Apples are among our favorite snacks. And mainly because they’re so portable. My son loves to eat them unsliced. Of course he’s 4 1/2 and hasn’t hit that tooth transition stage yet.
   I have a couple of those slicers that slice and core in one action and find slicing pretty simple. Of course if I need them peeled, I do have to use my paring knife. But I have never thought of apples to be so inconvenient. And, I’m quite suspect of what those pre-sliced apples in the grocery store have been treated with to keep them from turning brown.
   Thanks for a thoughtful post!



2. Dawn Says:
   October 2nd, 2007 at 9:46pm

   I agree with Melissa. Sliced apples give me the ’skeptic’s eyebrow’ which these days is giving me a wrinkle!

   My daughter, now 10, has almost always loved apples barring a few short phases that really meant we just needed to shop for a different variety. Now she’ll eat almost any of them along with pears and other fruits. I don’t think I’ve ever peeled an apple … ever. Wow. Mostly b/c I don’t bake. =)

   The forbidden thing is SO true, though. I tend to visit the farmer’s market by myself and bring home a variety of fruits & veggies that I wash, and arrange what I can in bowls on the counter. When she asks for one of the items I know she cares less for than others (but always wants to try this batch) I will oftentimes tell her they were purchased for a specific recipe so she can’t have them yet. She’ll then ask for them every day, every snack, every meal until she can have them and proceeds to eat every one. =) She’ll also try anything I’ve cooked with it, no matter how new, since it contains the ‘forbidden’ item!