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Vintage Toronto Ads: Apple Picking
Source: Quest, June/July/August 1982.
As apple-picking season starts its decline, we wandered to the nearest orchard this weekend to check whether any heritage varieties were left on the trees. After being distracted by the allure of one too many honeycrisps and mutsus, we found a hardy tree bearing the long lost Don Mills strain of the Cupertino apple. We couldn’t help but notice that our guide to find this rare specimen bore a passing resemblance to the young Jack Layton.
Once the financial departments of businesses large and small discovered a taste for the Cupertino (and its distant cousins the Commodore and IBM) during the 1980s, the effect these breeds of apple had on the physical and mental health of employees was remarkable. Better health provoked better forecasting abilities, which resulted in many a crystal ball being tossed out the window. To this day the crystal ball industry has not recovered the sales volumes it saw during the 1970s.
The Canadian growers of the Cupertino apple later moved their administrative operations from Don Mills to Markham.
