Lost in Orange | Page 40

After  (and  Before)  Apple-­‐Washing     When  all  the  apples  have  been  washed,     you  should  turn  them  upside-­‐down,   so  water  doesn’t  sit  in  their  stem  ends,   which  could  make  them  rot,  God  forfend!     When  the  apples  have  been  washed,     they  may  be  left  in  the  drainer,     or  hand-­‐dried,  and  refrigerated,   flat  on  the  shelf,  or  bowled,  or  plated.     My  own  practice  has  always  been   to  transfer  apples  from  drainer  to  fridge   whenever  I  happen  to  think  of  it.     In  other  words,  this  may  not  matter  a  bit.     Another  question,  more  fundamental,   is  whether  one  should  wash  apples,  at  all.   Are  unwashed  apples  less  likely  to  rot?   Of  course,  they  may  be  –but,  then,  they  may  not.     Then  again,  furthermore,  and  nowadays,     what  with  all  the  “No  Pesticide”  claims,   assuming  these  claims  aren’t  Fool’s  Gold,   apples  may  need  neither  washing  nor  cold.     “What’s  the  point,”  you  ask,  “of  all  these  quibbles?”   They  surely  stem  from  that  fibbling  fibble   of  our  first  parent,  the  one  who  told   God  the  lie,  in  the  Peek-­‐a-­‐Boo  affair,   and,  cast  away,  still  sows  doubt  everywhere.     40