While moving some books in my office I opened the 1907 Yearbook of Agriculture. Some 101 years ago a featured new promising fruit was called the delicious apple. The apple was first noticed by a farmer in Iowa about 1881. His name was Jesse Hiatt. He sold the right to propagate and sell the apple to a commercial nursery and it was patented on July 4, 1905 with the name Delicious.

The apple originally was yellow with mixed red blushes. They bred this apple to be crimson red, firmer and more juicy. Today it is called the red delicious. The reason this story is being told is that over 100 years ago when this apple was discovered it was thought to have promise. It became a celebrity in the Washington State Apple Industry and over time this apple made up three-fourths of that state's apple production. The apple was bred to be deep red and sweet. It was grown in Illinois as well. But something happened the public eventually rejected this apple. Some say it is because breeders removed the flavor to increase storage life others say consumers are more demanding. Whatever the reason for 100 years this apple was a leader in the fruit industry and today it continues to loose market share. Newer sweeter, tarter, apples are emerging and taking over the market. These are called Fuji, Gala, and Granny Smith. It will be interesting to see if the delicious apple will survive the next hundred years and what new promising fruit will be on the horizon in 2107. We have at least become more aware that fruit is good for you. Time will tell if it will still even look like an apple.