Friday, 23 September 2016

Free Trade



There are five different kinds of apple available at the grocer near my home: Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith and Fuji. Those five are there pretty much all year long. They never seem to go bad, but they were never all that good to begin with. When I was a girl autumn was apple season; that meant Rome, McIntosh, Jonathan, Cortland, Pippin, and dozens of other varieties. Their aroma was intoxicating. Some were incredibly sweet and juicy; some more crisp and tart. Some were better for eating or pie or cider than others, some made better applesauce and some kept longer in the cellar. Compared to any of them, all the apples at my local store taste like cardboard. When my grandmother was a girl there were hundreds of different apples, but my grandkids can only sample five. Will their grandchildren only know one – one shiny, red, odorless and tasteless apple that never spoils?

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