Club apples like Envy are a method of limiting the supply of certain variety and managing the price. When folks purchase these apples they support that idea.
Most of the club apple trees are not available to folks like us. I don’t see anything positive about the situation so I don’t purchase these apples.
That was my initial reaction to club apples too. They are not the ideal model for consumers and a terrible model for home fruit growers.
But I disagree that there isn’t anything positive. I’ve come to see significant value in enforcing a contract with growers. It allows the patent holder, if so inclined, to ensure that apples of a given variety are grown to quality standards.
I’d nearly given up on grocery store apples, but now find that nearly all the only ones I enjoy are club apples. There are many excellent varieties in the public domain, but the ones that end up in the store mostly aren’t worth eating.
With club apples, there is a level of accountability and a brand to uphold.
I dream that in the future market forces, regulation, protests, or whatever, will produce an apple marketplace in which flavor and eating quality of apples are the goals of growers and distributors. Until then, I’ll enjoy Opals, Lady Alices, and the like to supplement what I grow at home or serendipitously chance upon.
I also gave up on grocery store apples when Red and Golden Delicious were the only choices. Fortunately, I now see dozens of variety of good “public domain” apple variety in my local supermarkets. The quality is generally good and sometimes excellent. They would be a lot better if they had not been in CA storage for so long. I also see many “public domain” variety available at the local farmer’s market in season and for a short period after harvest, with no long term CA storage effects .
The marketplace works and turning a commodity like a fresh apple into a brand name is an interesting marketing idea. The consumer gets another choice, but at a higher price. It should make money for certain growers and the marketers, and perhaps hurt others.
I don’t like anything about this new branded, controlled growing and marketing process so I will not buy these apples, except for a few for a taste test. I don’t want to accelerate the market forces in the direction of club apple variety that I will never have the chance to plant.
Just to clarify one of my comments.
What I meant by that is, in spite of selling many varieties that have the potential to be excellent, the actual fruits of those varieties that they sell at the stores around here are not good. This is at a range of prices, in and out of season, various stores and markets, and organic or otherwise.
I wasn’t aware of the “club” apple situation, blueberry and murky. Sounds complicated. I’m not a huge fan of corporate capitalism in general, but while we have the current system, I try to respect intellectual property rights, for instance in the case of not buying pirated music or movies. At our CRFG here, we don’t allow scions of fruits that are still under patent. But it sounds like you’re saying this is a bigger issue than just patented fruit varieties, and I respect your positions on it. Thanks both of you for alerting me to the issue.
Any one try the Rockit Apple? Just picked them up at my local CVS store. They come in a cylinder of plastic like tennis balls. Like a large crab apple size. Very sweet almost reminded me of. gala Apple. They are not cheap. I’m not sure if these will do well in the long run to me. Seems like a gimmick to sell an apple.
I have become a total fruit snob. I cannot bring myself to buy an apple from the grocery store let alone the horrible berries that taste like cardboard mixed with water. Don’t even talk about tomatoes!
John,
I should consider moving to the Cape. You have Home Depot and Lowe’s that carry interesting/good apple varieties (ours carry labels like red apple, green apple). You have CVS that sell fruit. We have CVS at every corner. None of them sells fruit or groceries.
Then, I remember how expensive it is to live at the Cape. I only dream 
I’m luckier than that I live right before the bridge to the Cape, but still considered Cape Cod. Nice area with a beautiful beach and no tourists. Our CVS just recently changed over an area to be more like a quick prepared food area I’m sure it will be coming to most of them soon.
I bought it because it was new and wanted to try the taste? To me it’s such a small Apple even my kids would need a few so why waste the money on them and the plastic packaging turns me off. Campari tomatoes are worth buying.
My wife purchased a bag of pink lady apples the other day. I had one last night and really enjoyed it, nice and crisp.
Are we talking about the CVS drug store here? We have them here, but they just sell modern drug store type stuff along with very minimal grocery store type items.
Pink lady seem good this year and in general are consistently good but due to some not having the flavor they should their rating dropped to 4.4 http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/pinklady . Gala and fuji has also been excellent for me overall. I did get stuck with a bad bag or two of gala and fuji this year. Those bad gala and fuji brings down the apples overall popularity. If you look on the orangepippin site gala has dropped clear down to a rating of only 4.1 http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/gala .I picked up wickson scions this year because it rated 5 on the same orangepippin scale http://www.orangepippin.com/crab-apples/wickson-crab . i wish i could try one from the grocery store but they do seem to only be available if you grow them yourself. How long i wonder will it be until these smaller great tasting crabapples catch on? Fuji is definately holding its own on the tasting scale staying consistently rated as high as ashmeads kernel and other great apples at 4.5 which is impressive for a supermarket apple i think http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/fuji
So the retailers and growers dumped the old apple crops and what would not fit in cold storage. The time for cheap apples has passed for the season and just when we miss them the most. This is the time of the year when we pull out our canning jars filled with wonderful fruits and ciders. If you didn’t can this year good quality apples are still out there to be had at a fair price. This is a glance at prices and types at a walmart in mid January. I pay attention not only so I know which ones keep and sell but so I also know their quality currently. I make sure they were usa grown.
Earlier this fall they were selling honey crisp for deer apples. Around a bushel bag for 3-4 bucks ! The deer sure did like them .
Yes, they just turned an area into premade cold foods.
I wonder if they were still good enough for cider, what a bargain!
Around a bushel bag for 3-4 bucks ! (was that a pun?)
Yes the quality of them was very good. For the most part the same as those in the supermarkets. Not sure if they are drops or over production ,or a combination of both. Not really a pun as they didn’t get me even one buck 
I sure do love good gala apples https://www.orangepippin.com/apples/gala. The one I just ate was more heavily striped than this one and you could really see and taste the cox orange pippin influence. The store had these for around $1 per pound. We’ve had them in cold storage for a while now.
