[vkou]

> I don't understand your second point.

When I go to the grocery, food is available to me at any time of year.

Your friend's apples are only available for ~2 months/of the year. The supply chains that feed the world have to work year-round, and all the people that work them expect to get paid. Availability adds to the cost.

> What I know for sure is that apples in the 50s had at least an order of magnitude more calories than apples today

I have a very hard time believing that the average apple from the 50s had 94 * 10 = 940 calories.

[pil0u]

That's the whole point: don't eat apples from January to December.

[vkou]

Which is the whole problem. Your friend's apple orchard is not a replacement for the modern grocery. It's a seasonal supplement that replaces the cheapest and easiest part of a diet - in-season produce.

And he has to work insanely hard all-year-long to do it.