We were in the grocery store last night and came across an Apple Pear. In fact, we bought one, as it was amid the Fiji apples and I think we did so by accident. From my previous post, The DillVinci Code, you know that if the code on the sticker is give digits and starts with an “8,” the fruit is a hybrid. This baby had the four digit code of conventional fruit, which really confounded us.
Apparently, there are Pear Apples that are hybrids, and there are Apple Pears. Apple Pears apparently occur naturally and are not apples at all. Rather, many varieties of pears from Asia do not have the bottom heavy shape that European pairs do. Hence, they are apple shaped pears. I don’t know why they couldn’t have just been called something else. It is kind of like the same conundrum we had as kids when crayola had both orange-red and red-orange and yellow-orange as colors in their stable. It caused many, many misunderstandings when we asked eachother to pass us a crayon, because there is “the crayon you meant” versus the “crayon you mentioned.” Visually, you knew you rather have the red that had a tinge of orange in it, rather the orange that had a bit of red in it, but you could never keep them straight.
Most grocery stores would never have a Pear Apple and also have Apple Pears, so I can imagine being sent off to the store with a request for them, and someone being upset because they wanted an Apple Pear, and you were just supposed to leave it there if they only had Pear Apples. There would have been many moments of doubt, with you wondering if you had misheard them, or were being too literal.
Can you guess, in the photo above, which is the Pear Apple or the Apple Pear is?
Okay, you’ve twisted my arm.
In the middle, it is actually a variety of pear, even though the color would have made you think it may have some apple in there. At right is a gala apple. Plain and simple. No tricks there. The Apple Pear is actually the fruit at left. Would you have guessed it if I hadn’t told you?
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