27th
More economics
Empire apples: high risk, high return. A bad Empire apple is like biting into quicksand. Our school cafeteria used to offer huge baskets of these things, and all you could do was stare wistfully and curb your apple craving, because every single one of those apples would be mushy.
A good Empire, on the other hand, is a flawless apple. Not too sweet (looking at you, Honeycrisp), nor crumbly (Golden Delicious), nor wan (Pink Lady), nor thick-skinned (Red Delicious) nor overly assertive (Fuji) but hitting just the right spot on the sweet-tart scale. With dappled red-green skin and flesh whiter than a Faulknerian virgin’s nightgown, and a roundness that is just right for jauntily tossing in the air, pre-snacktime.
This seems like a good jumping off point to make my annual reminder to people about the evils of the Red Delicious apple — AKA the worst apple in the world. For more on Red Delicious economics, see Tyler Cowen “What Went Wrong With The Red Delicious”
