The sad, sad truth about supermarket apples is that you have NO clue as to their age.
The mass-marketed varieties are picked, sized, graded, and the ones with no defects AND STEMS INTACT are loaded into gigantic warehouses which are maintained at a constant temperature (35 degrees?) and in a nitrogen atmosphere. They keep damn near indefinitely.
THAT is why orchard-picked apples are the best.
~VOW
Huh? You can guess an apple’s age pretty well from looking at where it was grown, and knowing when apple season is (fall) and whether it’s an early-season or a late-season apple. Not many apples are stored more than a year. Most are harvested late-Aug through October in the northern hemisphere and 6 months earlier/later in the southern hemisphere.
Unless there’s a big sign saying “locally grown”, I always look at the little tag to see if an apple was grown in the US or in NZ. (almost all of the apples in my market coming from those two countries.)
Sorry to pop your bubble. Washington State has a gigantic apple industry, and there are enormous warehouses where apples are stored “CA,” meaning controlled atmosphere. Replacing the air with nitrogen, and keeping the temp at 35 degrees (I think), the apples are stored damn near indefinitely. Red Delicious are available at a constant supply year-round almost everywhere. That is the reason why.
As an experiment, a lady I knew stuck some apples in the back of her fridge, and kept them for almost a year. When she finally ate them, they were almost as fresh-picked.
There are caveats: the apples can have no breaks in the skin, and no bruises. And the stems must be intact. The intact stem keeps the apple “sealed” so no bacteria can enter.
When you buy apples in the store, choose ONLY those with stems intact.
~VOW