# Who Thought To Eat Green Apples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210 "2003-10-08T03:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/1 "2003-10-08T03:14:46Z")
Why would anyone think that green apples were ripe to eat? Was it out of deparation after observing a hungry horse nibbling on one? (Some are so sour, I think we’re nuts!) Well, how about them apples? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/2 "2003-10-08T03:15:35Z")
Hungry people. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/3 "2003-10-08T03:35:05Z")
Maybe they watched other animals eating them without being harmed. This isn’t foolproof, but is a pretty safe bet. This came to me because of the scene in _Robinson Crusoe_ where he spends a lot of effort trying to trap a rabbit who is eating mushrooms. He fails in that but it suddenly strikes him that if they are safe for the rabbit there is a good chance they are safe for him. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/4 "2003-10-08T03:36:58Z")
Gee, I skimmed your OP so fast that I didn’t notice that you said the same thing. (Raps knuckles on side of head - hard.) ---
**Author:** ![dinoboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dinoboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dinoboy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/5 "2003-10-08T03:52:58Z")
Now that you brought it up, how did we decide to eat nearly _Any_ vegitation or fruit? Take rhubarb, nearly every part of the plant is posionous, but not the stem (or is it the leaf?), anyway, say you’re a caveman, you see buddy caveman eat part of this leafy green and drop dead. Are you gonna go up and take a bite from this plant for good measure? Would you be willing to take a bite out of another part of this plant for the sake of science? (of course not, science hasn’t even been invented yet!) So who thought figured out the **stem** would be the way to go? Most wilderness survival books will describe a process to determine edible wild things - I will simplify: lick first, then a small nibble, if you’re still not dead, a bigger nibble… and so forth. By the way, watching animals is not always a good idea, many can eat things that will make us sick (or dead). However, this is probably closest to the way it was done at first. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/6 "2003-10-08T05:30:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dinoboy \* > Take rhubarb, nearly every part of the plant is posionous, but not the stem (or is it the leaf?)… [The toxicity of rhubarb leaves](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2202747&highlight=rhubarb#post2202747) is overrated. With regard to taste testing unknown foods, the exact procedure you describe was employed by [Charles McIlvaine](http://www.mpm.edu/collect/botany/mushroom.html) in putting together his classic “One Thousand American Fungi.” ---
**Author:** ![a\_bird\_on\_the\_wire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@a\_bird\_on\_the\_wire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_bird_on_the_wire)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/7 "2003-10-08T06:07:00Z")
No one _decided_ to eat green apples, it was an accident. You see sometime before the stone age really took off Og and some of his classmates were taking a break from introductory rock theory and Ckrul just happened to throw a green applle in Ogs’ direction. As luck would have it the apple struck Og in the mouth and well, the rest is, as they say, history. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/8 "2003-10-08T08:14:10Z")
Why did anyone think, “Hmmm, if I process this seaweed, and I add it to ox gall extracts, then float it on water with powdered dyes, then drag a comb through it, then lay paper on top, I can make beautiful marbled endpapers for my encyclopedia”? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/9 "2003-10-08T09:52:02Z")
Apples in the wild (i.e. those that existed before cultivated forms came along) are nearly _all sour_ - eating them when they are green makes little difference. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/10 "2003-10-08T10:10:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shoshana \* > \*\*Why did anyone think, “Hmmm, if I process this seaweed, and I add it to ox gall extracts, then float it on water with powdered dyes, then drag a comb through it, then lay paper on top, I can make beautiful marbled endpapers for my encyclopedia”? \*\* You’re talking a whole different ballgame. It’s all money, money, money! You’re talking a process vs. food in the wild. - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/11 "2003-10-08T15:45:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dinoboy \* > \*\*Most wilderness survival books will describe a process to determine edible wild things - I will simplify: lick first, then a small nibble, if you’re still not dead, a bigger nibble… and so forth. By the way, watching animals is not always a good idea, many can eat things that will make us sick (or dead). > > However, this is probably closest to the way it was done at first. \*\* Yeah but … those wilderness survival books are based on well developed and tested theories and experience with poisons. Early mankind had no such theory and no experience at all with eating this particular vegetable or fruit. The question was, How about the first time? In addition, I would question whether or not there was the ability to immediately make a connection between eating _this_ and getting a stomach ache. Given the varied nature of a hunter-gatherers’ diet if might have taken some time to come to the realization that this particular item was the baddie. And yes, animals can sometimes eat without ill-effects things that would harm us. But, it is a rough guide and I can’t think of any other useful way in the absence of theories and experience. And that experience was probably the result of a number of experiments having bad outcomes. The useful theories about toxins came many centuries - many, many centuries later. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/12 "2003-10-08T16:30:04Z")
At the risk of somone taking the taste-test described too literally, here is a link to the universal taste test for determining plant edibility. I had a horrible flash of some doper at some time in the future sitting on their desert island chewing at everything that went past. [http://www.wilderness-survival.net/plants-1.php](http://www.wilderness-survival.net/plants-1.php) Tast test is half way down the page. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/13 "2003-10-08T16:34:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > \*\*Why would anyone think that green apples were ripe to eat? Was it out of deparation after observing a hungry horse nibbling on one? (Some are so sour, I think we’re nuts!) > > Well, how about them apples? > > - Jinx \*\* But surely many apples are green when they _are_ ripe to eat - or maybe not in your part of the world 😕 Julie ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/14 "2003-10-08T16:45:44Z")
Bobby Gentry. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/15 "2003-10-08T17:23:18Z")
Roger Miller. or, Bobby Russell. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/16 "2003-10-10T06:29:38Z")
Given the fact that green apples are a cultivar, which means they were specifically bred for that green color and that sourness that you taste. We usually get cultivars when one person discovers that a certain plant (in this case an apple tree) produces fruits or seeds or flowers or leaves with a desireable trait. In the case of apples less sour fruit (i’m talking the original sweet apples). They save the seeds and grow them, which produces more trees. Then they select a tree from those seedlings that has fruit with a higher sugar content. Keep doing this and you get a new cultivar, a variety with a specific set of traits. Sometimes you can get a new cultivar with just one generation of seedlings. Apples are so genetically modified by us that apple orchards if untended will decline and die off. In fact, most fruit orchards will do this if left to their own devices. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/17 "2003-10-10T08:13:30Z")
Also (my observation from having often gathered wild apples), by the time they pass from the hard, green, sour stage to the (slightly)softer, reddish, (slightly)sweeter stage, many of them have either simply disappeared, having been eaten by wild animals (mostly birds), or have started to rot on the tree due to some blemish on the surface, or have been spoiled by insect larvae. Catching them slightly unripe is the best way to get a decent basketfull. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/18 "2003-10-10T09:11:10Z")
who thought to eat red apples? ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/19 "2003-11-11T04:48:57Z")
You have to remember that in cases like this, our ancestors may not have even been sentient when they started eating the ancestors to things like green apples - and it carried on as “knowledge” as our mental powers increased. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210/20 "2003-11-11T19:21:17Z")
I’d say it was mostly just a matter of trial and error. Some people had to be the guinea pigs in the early days to determine whether something was good to eat or not. If something was poisonous, all future mankind would then know not to eat it, at the expense of the brave soul who had to learn the hard way. If it was good, then everyone would then know from that point on that it’s okay to eat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-thought-to-eat-green-apples/206210.md?page=2)