When one thinks of an apple it isn’t the vibrant green color of the Granny Smith apple that jumps to mind, nor is it the mottled red and yellow stripes of the Fuji Apple.
No, indeed. The apple that comes to mind is the Red Delicious apple.
The Red Delicious is so ingrained in our minds as what an apple looks like, that if you ask a child to draw an apple, without question it’s going to be the red crayon they reach for.
That’s why Eat A Red Apple Day exists–to celebrate this iconic member of the apple family, and its history.
So get ready for Eat a Red Apple Day!
America became quite the hotbed of apple development after the travels of Johnny Appleseed and, by the late 1800’s, apple trees were everywhere in an amazing rainbow of delicious variety.
So much so, in fact, that apple varieties were being developed as a response to the ease of transporting apples on a commercial level around the United States.
The ‘Ben Davis’ Apple was the reigning king of apples in 1880, due to its ability to handle rough growing conditions and its ability to keep for a long time.
But it wasn’t considered the best tasting one, and as moving produce from farm to store became easier, better tasting apples began to win out.
Red Delicious held its position as the most popular apple in the world well into the 1980’s, when its popularity began to decline.
How popular was it, exactly? Washington State is one of the biggest producers of apples, and the Red Delicious constituted 75% of the state’s production!
While it has shrunk to 1/3rd of that amount since, it’s still a massive part of the world’s production of apples.
