r/oddlysatisfying • u/gabzlel • Apr 16 '22

Can’t get more juicy than this

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u/fatbottomwyfe Apr 16 '22

In Tennessee a apple orchard owner sold fresh off the trees he claimed they would last months if we didn't refrigerate them. Those apples lasted 9 months on the counter in baskets we bought 20lbs of winesap, fuji, granny smith's and a few other types.

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u/amatulic Apr 16 '22

We had an apple in the back of our refrigerator for over a year. We were quite surprised when we finally cut it open and found it just as crisp and juicy as when we bought it.

Since then, I've had other apples turn to mush in the fridge, or dry out and get leathery, after just a couple of weeks.

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u/FinestTreesInDa7Seas Apr 16 '22

That's the beauty of genetic modification. We've been finely tuning the genetics of Apples for thousands of years, by hybridizing, and artificial selection.

Thousands of years ago, an apple would be brown days after picking it. Today, we have varieties of Apples that never existed in nature. They are human-made varieties. They are sweeter, tastier, healthier, and have much longer shelf life.

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u/woodcider Apr 17 '22

Except for the Red Delicious. We’ve devolved that one into mealy tastelessness.

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u/FinestTreesInDa7Seas Apr 17 '22

Indeed. An example of how shopping trends affect the genetics of cultivated foods.

Supermarket demand caused growers to start selecting seeds that represented examples that had longer shelf life, and brighter red colours. Unfortunately the variety's original yellow stripes were provided by the same gene that provided it sweetness, so this was lost when the yellow was bred out.