Does anyone else eat apple cores?

I have gotten a lot of weird looks over the past few decades: anything from profound pity <laughing> "you poor thing, you must be so hungry!" <more laughing>, to: fear and shock: "this one escaped the loony bin!"

So, does anyone else simply twist off the stalk and eat the whole thing? For crab apples, it seems crazy to me one would attempt to eat everything but the core. And from what I have read, there isn't enough cyanide in the pits to be anything but beneficial.

I typically discard the blossom end and twist out the stem. I'll chew up as much of the core as I am inclined, ptui-ing out any seeds (gross but fun! I'm in the yard, who cares?).

I don't worry about leftover core bits, regardless. They go back into the land, not to a landfill.

I eat the whole thing. The only thing I toss is the stem. I like the way the seeds taste, and I never noticed any difference in flavor, and barely noticed any difference in texture, between the core and the rest of the flesh. Never understood why people didn't eat the core. I think it's one of those weird learned cultural things. So many illustrations, signs, cartoons, etc. equate "trash" with the image of a violin-shaped apple core.

Ned Harr wrote: So many illustrations, signs, cartoons, etc. equate "trash" with the image of a violin-shaped apple core.

Including this site, haha!

I don't admittedly, but one of my best friends does, and she also eats watermelon rinds and thinks they taste good.  I always toss my applecores outdoors.

Ra Kenworth wrote:So, does anyone else simply twist off the stalk and eat the whole thing?

Nah, the stalk is too fibrous.

More seriously, I know a few people who eat the cores. I've tried it, but don't prefer it. I was raised to discard the cores and either that deep-programming stuck and I haven't gotten over it, or I really do dislike the texture.

Okay, here's a shameless plug for pickled watermelon rind. It is a thing.

And also, I tried once to eat the whole apple, after reading an article somewhere about how stupid we are for not eating the whole thing. It is going to have to become an acquired habit for me, I've been too heavily influenced by the cultural taboo (it's like eating a banana peel!)

But I did get a laugh at the mental image of a guy eating a crabapple like Tom Hanks in "Big" eating the baby corn like it was normal size.

Riona Abhainn wrote:I don't admittedly, but one of my best friends does, and she also eats watermelon rinds and thinks they taste good.  I always toss my apple cores outdoors.

I don't eat the apple core because I don't like the seed or that tough area around the seed thou when I cut up an apple that is all I have left.  No core.

I believe in getting my money's worth and have minimal garbage.

People have always considered me odd so it's no surprise that eating apple cores is part of it. I'd been eating them for years without harm before discovering that the seeds contained cyanide. Somehow I'm still here and the more I read on this site, the more I realise I've found my tribe at last.

I hear you: I plan on taking the tribal voyage in 2026, after the screws come out of my ankle this winter and I lose the 40 lbs I've gained, get back in shape. The last 20 years since I got my homestead, I've been in the best shape of my life.

Originally from the UK and immigrated as a pre teen, all I had to do was open my mouth and I didn't fit in so I stopped trying.  And in the south of England, our departure location, we had a hard pear tree I always ate the cores, didn't know differently, and in Ontario we had a sweet crab apple dangling over from next door and I would eat handfuls of them.

I realized i found my tribe the day everyone who found my compost heap beautiful, with its roses rooting from clippings and Swiss chard seedlings and volunteers growing no irrigation during last summer's drought in my red pine tree guild.

Any idiot would only see a compost hil lol

Ara Murray wrote:People have always considered me odd so it's no surprise that eating apple cores is part of it. I'd been eating them for years without harm before discovering that the seeds contained cyanide. Somehow I'm still here and the more I read on this site, the more I realise I've found my tribe at last.

A great many fruits have cyanide in their seeds. Perfectly practical -- animals that eat the fruit and swallow the seed intact are the means to move the seed further afield. Animals that chew/digest the seed come to wish they hadn't. Plants ain't as dumb as some people think.

I chew the seeds

I make apple sauce with them too

I suppose it's the quantity that is the issue

Ra Kenworth wrote:I chew the seeds

I make apple sauce with them too

I suppose it's the quantity that is the issue

The quantity and perhaps the size of the animal as well. A human may not even notice; a rodent may find itself a little seasick.

Personally I would strain seeds out of apple sauce or juice -- they can add an element of bitterness.

I guess I am a combination of lazy and not fussy about my food lol

I have also been getting more tolerant to bitterness as I consume greater quantities of wild edibles