I also think it’s just a plain old waste of money. There are thousands of varieties of apples out there. It would be so easy to just promote an old variety.
Yesterday, I was spraying my orchard and thinking I would love to see more research into safer pesticides with more residual effectiveness. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an insecticide for apples that lasts 3 weeks or more.
Me too. It makes me so angry I have to consciously stop thinking about it.
If I somehow inherited from a rich Uncle ungodly amount of money, or won the lottery and a big jackpot, I think I would spend every penny trying to jailbreak club apples. Or at least hire some people with nothing to lose to go ninja, assassin, rogue, and hijack cuts of every one of them and then give them out for free at the farmers market with a big FU sticker attached to the side.
I would go ninja if it didn’t take too much effort. If there were a club orchard near me that I knew about I would steal some sticks.
I understand the dislike of club apples. That being said, I think it is more of a marketing thing. There are a huge number of apples that can be sourced for someone looking to grow their own apples with many of them being awesome choices. Club apples are exclusive and marketed but probably aren’t the best apples you could grow yourself. My feeling is that putting a lot of marketing into an heirloom apple like golden russet or Northern Spy would end up being a losing proposition because a competitor could source the same apple and capitalize on your marketing. Club apples give producers a way to create a market for new apples so I’m somewhat neutral on them. The good side is more variety in the store and the bad side is that I can’t grow it. I occasionally will try a club apple from the store to see what it is like but don’t buy them regularly. On the other side, I only have so much room for growing fruit so, while it is annoying that I can’t grow them, I just focus on the many other varieties that I could grow, and it isn’t a huge deal.
I actually haven’t had any since then, I don’t think. I rarely see them anymore, but maybe that’s due to my current shopping habits and buying local apples when in season. I’ll certainly pick some up if I see them again.