Last Saturday, I joined a group of people from Rose in going to Apple Fest. As a lover of all things apple, I have gone to the annual event for the past three years, and this year was just as great as previous ones (actually better since it wasn’t freezing or raining). Before we walked down to the Commons, Professor Blalock gave a brief talk on the economy of apples, particularly club apples. Due to my interest in apples, I had already heard Professor Blalock discuss how apples are patented and trademarked and all of the effort that goes into naming them, when I had gone apple picking with Rose House last year (I discussed it in my blog post here). However, while I had learned about the naming of Snapdragons last year, I had not heard about the other Cornell apple, Ruby Frost (Ruby = red outside, Frost = white inside and late-season apple). Ruby Frost apples in particular interested me, because of the fact that they were developed for a particular purpose. They were specifically designed to be apples for children’s lunches. Children generally will not eat a whole apple for lunch, but they will eat a cut-up one. However, most apples start to turn brown shortly after they have been cut, making the apples look unappealing to eat. The Ruby Frost apple was created to solve this problem. Unlike most apples, the Ruby Frost apple does not brown, making it the perfect apple to cut up for children’s lunches. Furthermore, as we were leaving the talk, one of my friends pointed out another potential application for Ruby Frost apples: salads. Having an apple that does not brown can greatly improve the aesthetic appeal of any food that contains cut pieces of raw apples. In addition, the Ruby Frost apples have the advantage of being a late-season apple (harvested in mid to late October). Since apple growers rely on a relatively small group of migrant workers to pick their apples, having apples that are to be picked at a later time, when the demand for labor is not so high, is greatly beneficial. Overall, it appears that the Ruby Frost apple will be a great addition to the many varieties of apples out there.