Rotten to the Core

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by Hannah (BitterSweet)

If there’s anything worse than watching a favorite fruit slowly passing its prime and going out of season, disappearing from store shelves until next year, it would be the way that some markets completely ignore seasons altogether. You would think that harvest times would be an important factor in what to stock a market with, but apparently this is of little interest to many mega-marts, supplying an endless stream of the same fruits and veggies all year round. Thanks to a consumerist culture that gets what it wants, when it wants, I turned 16 years old before I figured out that apples don’t actually grow all year round! But why not, if they can always be found shiny and polished, ready to be purchased just a short 10 minute drive away? Really, it makes me sick to think of how long those edible time bombs have been sitting in cold storage, just waiting to take the place of fresher specimens. At this point, the humble apple that you might find waiting patiently in the store could be almost a year old, picked in the cool, crisp autumn of 2006. So far from the proper season, I usually avoid such dubious suspects… But sometimes, I can’t help what ends up in my basket by the time I reach the check-out line.

Apple of my eye, so red and round, could you blame me for coveting that lustrous red skin? There’s no excuse for this impulse buy and I know it, surrounded as I am by those lovely soft apricots and blackberries ripe for the picking, but, oh, how I wanted it! In autumn months I’ve been known to consume as many as three apples per day, so to show this much restraint this late in the year is quite remarkable.

Settling in to enjoy my apple, the first matter of business was to cut away a few sweet slices to dunk in a healthy dollop of peanut butter. Slicing horizontally, immediately I could sense that it felt wrong somehow, as if it were hollow inside. It was pure craziness to think such an absurd thought, but the further in my knife dove, the less resistance it met. Strange indeed, I proceeded to pop the top off, and discovered the most heart-stopping scene inside. Knife clattering to the floor, I stood back so quickly that my chair toppled over awkwardly like an unbalanced drunkard, and in the midst of all this racket…

…Sat the longest, pinkest, wriggliest uninvited guest that had ever joined me at the table. Black, beady eyes poking this way and that, examining this bright new space, he appeared to be just as startled as I. As he began emerging from the apple slowly, I recoiled further in horror, the childhood fear of anything creepy or crawly returning in the blink of an eye.

While I could have easily expected mealy, bland, or even rotten innards, I would have never suspected that I had purchased nothing more than the facade of an apple, only good for housing a worm!

That will certainly teach me not to buy out of season ever again!

25 thoughts on “Rotten to the Core”

  1. I’m freaked out by bugs, but let me tell you that if the ones that came out of apples and other fruits were to be as cute as this one, I wouldn’t mind it at all! give me rotten fruits, people! :)

  7. boy that’s the story of my life …4 sure….
    very cute
    i just love your compositions and story lines that go along with ur creations…..followed this for a few years ….blog on!

  9. wow, I really hope that this is just a story you came up with and not something you ACTUALLY experienced!! ick!! apples are certainly one of my favorite fruits, but if I EVER found a worm in my apple, I would be scarred for life, haha.

    I’m so excited for autumn, when apples will actually be in season – I admit, I do eat apples year round (because, like you, I can’t resist – I eat 2 apples literally everyday), but it will be a nice treat to savor a fresh-picked apple. have you ever had a Jazz apple? they mostly come from New Zealand, and they’re delicious! I find that they’re the only apple that can truly be enjoyed year-round, without any compromise in texture or flavor (and no worms! haha).

    in any event, the worm is very cute, so it’s a little hard to be grossed out by him :0)

  10. Hi there! I just discovered your blog last week, linked from a food blog I believe. I went back to the beginning and read to present. Anyway, your crafts are positively adorable! The little stories for each one cracked me up. The baked goods look great as well – you surely have talents, keep it up!

  12. I hope you just made that up and you didn’t ACTUALLY buy an apple with a worm inside!! :-0

    You are so right about the availability of fruit out of season. It’s sickening that it can be sitting around that long, pumped full of chemicals to make it look okay on the outside, when inside it is waiting to spontaneously combust the minute you cut it open. Ugh!

  13. I was reading along…being a good girl and not scrolling ahead…and I was thinking oh what a sweet little apple…THEN…BAM! that cute little worm showed up! What a great surprise!

  14. as someone else said, i hope you made that story up and it didn’t actually happen! yikes. the apple with a worm in it that you created is very awesome though. :)

  21. Very very cute.

    Out-of-season fruits and veggies were also likely shipped a looooong way to get to your supermarket looking all fresh and shiny. So getting local fruit and veggies in-season not only supports the local economy, but it also saves tons of gasonline and carbon emissions that don’t get used shipping it. If that made sense. It’s tired and I’m late.

  22. I was in Spain with my family a long time ago, i was like 7 or 8, and we bought plums from a market vendor. i bit into one and a nasty ole’ worm crawled out!!!! This is perfect!!!
    Nathalie

  25. That is so cute!! You could even make a coin-purse out of that!! How did you come up with that idea?!!!!!

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