Apple orchard, harvesting; Red Delicious

So, yesterday, I went with some friends to do service and harvest Red Delicious apples at the orchard for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The apples were abundant and large. They didn't fall off easily.

The week before, I went with a couple friends to another one of the Church's orchards and harvested Johnathan apples. They were smaller, less abundant, and they fell off the tree more easily. It's a shame Red Delicious isn't as popular as it used to be (except, I'm not advocating monoculcture), because it seems to be pretty nice, and an ideal apple for the area (this year, anyhow).

Nowadays stores seem to sell things like Gala, Fuji and maybe newer kinds. I like the older ones, but some of the newer ones taste awesome (though Fuji and Gala are not among my favorites). I like Granny Smith, McIntosh and such. I like Red Delicious quite a bit, though. I like it a lot more now that I see how well it grows in SW Idaho, though!

Red Delicious gets a bad rap for taste. In all honesty, I think it tastes great. It has a unique taste, however. If it's the only kind of apple you eat, you might want something else, eventually. Maybe that's why it fell out of favor (people ate it almost exclusively). Or, maybe the taste changed over time due to growing conditions / storage conditions or new breeds of apples termed Red Delicious.