We went out and purchased two Granny Smith Apples. One 
organic and the other conventional. The fist thing we noticed was the price difference, a whopping 30%. Yeah.. but when you’re talking about an apple this amounted to about twelve cents. No big deal. Anyway, we ran a taste test and here’s what we found.
Both apples looked great, although the organic one had this little hole on top where a bug was starting to have it’s way with it. Fortunately when we carefully cut into it we found that the bugster has skedaddled already. The only difference we could really see was that the organic apple appeared more heart shape. But honestly both looked good.
So they look alike but what about taste? Well we tried both and there was a difference. To us the organic one tasted slightly more appley as if that was a word. But really, both tasted great. And you know what? If we were taking independent bites we really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Well now if both apples essentially look alike and taste alike then why spend the extra twelve cents? I’ll tell you why. First the organic will be more environmentally friendly and there will be less poisons used in the world. Second, there will be less pesticides and stuff on the apple. You see the thing about apples is that if you plant the seeds from a single apple all the trees will bare fruit that tastes different. 
Really. To counter this and so a Granny Smith always tastes like a Granny Smith they use the same tree and just graft it. So this low tech version of cloning is used in the apple industry (hey, you don’t want to grow a tree only to find out later that the fruit is lousy, so they use the same good tree over and over as it were). But this lack of diversity is one of the reasons why apples are one of the most highly sprayed crops around. Just to give you a feel of this take a look at the link here. This is the list of pesticides, acaricides, fungicides, bactericides, herbicides, nematicides and rodenticides ….. whew…. used for Apple Crops.
And in addition don’t forget about the shellac used to make them look nice and shiny (see the OTK Post Link Below).
So in summary it’s a no brainer. For Apples, Go Organic.
Related Links:
- Organic Test Kitchen Post. “Shellac on your apples (refinishing to bring out the luster in old food)“
i hated this because it did not make any sense.
I live in South Australia [Salisbury] and have a 40 year old granny smith apple tree in my back yard and now in April/Autum , its time to start havesting them…a bit sour they are ,but big ,juicy and easy to store…no worms or fruitfly…also 100% organic..bio what ever you call it…if you get your hand on austrlian grannies…you wont be disapointed….i will get approx. 30 to 50 kg of apples from my tree…and i love them…good for juicing too…
Regards from Pete…… from a sunny ,still warm ,South Australia…a hello from down under to all granny lovers !
I’m surprised you purchased an apple with a hole in it. I would never do that. Fruit is handled by many people during transport and stocking in the store so I can’t imagine the bacteria and dirt that could have entered that hole. I also don’t buy bruised fruit, a holdover from my days buying non-organic fruit (bruises and cuts provide nice entry points for pesticides.)
I buy organic apples because apples are on the “Dirty Dozen list” of fruits and vegetables found with the highest concentrations of pesticides (http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214) Also, it’s good to vote with your wallet by purchasing organic fruits and vegetables, letting farmers know you expect more environmental accountability.
On a separate note, you used the incorrect word. It’s bear fruit, not bare fruit (unless you meant naked fruit.)