I like to consider myself to be a person who fully understood why Snow White was so tempted by that apple. Of course, it could have been a mealy mess, as far too many apples seem to be, but the sheer delight of biting into a crisp apple far outweighs the risk that what you thought was a honeycrisp was actually a red delicious. A good apple is a true treat.

It’s for this reason I was very excited to attend Apple Fest – to participate in a community even around a food I haven’t been able to immerse myself in for a few years. But while the apples were fantastic, what was all the more interesting was the conversation we had with Professor Blalock beforehand. I was already aware of some of the details surrounding the business of club Apples, and even Cornell’s participation in that endeavor, but certainly there were more details to get into. Concerning the honeycrisp itself, I remember as a kid being VERY excited when my mom would come home from the grocery with four of those apples, often very large ones as well. It became somewhat of a household name, and it’s interesting to compare the timelines of my introduction to the apple to the rise of the honeycrisp.

It’s amazing to see what a change the honeycrisp was to the apple industry – the new process of breeding trees, trademarking names and branding apples, while sure to increase the quality of apples in the produce section, isn’t something I see as entirely positive. While market forces are going to put some cap on the price of these apples, it doesn’t sit quite right with me that these groups are keeping these apples in tightly controlled groups in order to keep supply and demand in somewhat of a balance so they can maximize the selling price as high as possible. While I’m excited to try a Ruby Frost particularly, and willing to pay the price that will surely be associated, I’m anxious that something so wonderful as a good apple could be kept an elite treat only few will opt in to enjoy.