Jenise wrote:Haven't seen that apple yet, Hoke. Btw, speaking of galas, I met some wine people from Eastern Washington who started out as an apple farm. The topic at hand was marketers deciding that the public is so stupid they won't buy what is naturally the best if it doesn't match some false ideal, and that caused her to mention galas. "It was never supposed to be a red apple," she said.
I don't think of Galas as 'red apples', Jenise. Not in the sense of a Red Delicious, say. I first had Galas up in Oregon, and had them with some wonderful extra-sharp, extra-aged local cheddar. Shazzaamm! What a good combo. So for many years, that was the only way I ate them, sliced and served with cheese.
Then I started eating them straight, but found out I generally preferred the Braeburns for that. Don't know if my recent dislike of Braeburns is from harvest conditions, or shoddification of the type for profit purposes, but it's been tough finding good, crisp, juicy Braeburns for a while.
My wife lived for twenty+ years in the Tri-Cities. Wheat, apple, and wine country. She knew vitually all the wine people, and most of the orchardists (often the same folk, a la the Hogues, for instance), and I got a bit of insight into the apple bizness. It's just as middle-man driven as any other major industry.
On the other hand, my father-in-law lives up in the Medford area now, and he has several espalliered apple trees in his yard, with a different type of apple on each grafted branch, so he has access to a long season of apples that most of us buy in the grocery stores. The trees are easy to grow and easy to train, too.