Uprooted by Grace Olmstead

Author:Grace Olmstead [Olmstead, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

I walk through an apple orchard on the south slopes of Emmett, along rows of manicured trees covered in yellow fruit. The orchard is immaculately maintained: the grass between the trees is clipped short, and everything is free of weeds and debris. Then there’s the view beyond: of the dusty-colored slopes stretching east toward Freezeout Hill, the clumps of neighboring orchards and suburbs, the irrigation ditches stretching toward town.

“Do you generally think of Golden Delicious apples as crispy?” the orchard’s owner, Lance Phillips, asks me suddenly.

I shrug. “Not particularly,” I say.

Lance quickly picks an apple from a tree and tosses it to me. “Take a bite right now,” he says with a grin.

I bite into the apple with a loud crunch. It is perfectly crispy, its sweet and tangy flavor lingering in my mouth with every bite.

An unripe apple is full of starch. Until it starts producing ethylene gas, which kick-starts the ripening process, an unripe apple won’t taste good. But after the gas has helped convert all that starch to sugar, the apple has a rich crispiness and flavor. It’s perfect. But here’s the catch: as soon as a perfectly ripe apple is picked on the tree, it will begin to age and grow mushy. Its shelf life is limited, which can hurt profits and make national or international sales difficult. Because of this, store-bought apples are usually picked just before the fruit has started converting its starch to sugar, and stored in a cold, low-oxygen environment that slows the conversion process. Some sellers will also use SmartFresh, the brand name for synthetic plant-growth regulator 1-methylcyclopropene. SmartFresh binds the apple’s ethylene receptors, thus preventing it from receiving the cue that it’s time to ripen.19

Because of this process, the apples we buy at the store can be up to a year old. Once they’re finally in the store and on the shelf, the apples begin their ripening process again. But the process of ripening in the store doesn’t mirror ripening in the orchard: the apple doesn’t have the same deep flavor, aroma, or nutritional complexity.20

As I stand in Lance’s orchard, tasting one of the best apples I’ve ever had, I realize that this apple is the fruit of a long legacy of work and fidelity. The roots of this orchard go down deep, connecting the present to the past. But the fruit in my hand is also a picture of the constant transformation that happens on a farm: the seasons that perpetually move us forward into growth, decay, and new life.

This orchard was once owned by an Emmett native named Robert Benson (known as Bob), who was born near the very spot I now stand on. He grew up here on the south slopes, helping tend the apple, cherry, peach, and pear trees his father and grandfather cultivated. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1940 but returned to Emmett after World War II ended and bought fifty-three acres of his own, just a few miles northeast of his childhood home.

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