They aren't swear words, exactly. But to Donald Gibbon, an organizer of the second Urban Apple Festival tomorrow and Saturday at the Union Project in Highland Park, they come pretty darn close when you're talking apples in Western Pennsylvania:

Red Delicious.

OK. So these brilliant red fruits -- among the most widely grown varieties in the country -- are practically synonymous with this popular fruit. But they also diminish the long tradition of apples in Pennsylvania, which ranks as the fourth largest apple-producing state in the United States, growing 11 million bushels a year.

"[Red delicious] symbolize Washington state," Mr. Gibbon exclaims, before launching into a story about how Walt Disney helped popularize the image of the Red Delicious apple by having Snow White take a bite of one in the 1937 animated film. "And besides," he adds, "they don't taste very good."

What will knock your culinary socks off, though, are the nontraditional and new varieties which are increasingly available from local growers, such as Gold Rush, Fujis, Honeycrisp, and Mr. Gibbon's personal favorite, the intensely tart Stayman, which he buys by the half-bushel from Kistaco Farm in Apollo, Armstrong County.

Now there's an apple you can really sink your teeth into and not be disappointed!

The festival's goal is to introduce Pittsburghers to the local farmers who are growing some of the region's best-tasting apples and pressing them into equally great ciders, and then give them a taste of what they have to offer. Or as Mr. Gibbon puts it, "enjoy the wonder of it, all this good stuff in the same place, with nice people."

The event also aims to educate consumers about which apples are best to eat fresh and which are better for pies or sauces with an "Apples to Apples" talk at 7 p.m. tomorrow by master apple grower Lou Lego of Elderberry Pond farm in upstate New York (cost: $10).

A native of Coraopolis, Mr. Lego gave up a career as an electrical engineer for General Electric to tend full time to his 100-acre certified organic farm in Auburn. Heirloom apples -- many varieties of which were grafted onto semi-dwarf root stock from trees that were on the farm in the 1800s -- are one of its main crops, along with current-day commercial varieties such as Gala and Fuji and new disease-resistant apples such as Pristine and Enterprise.

Most people, says Mr. Lego, want the apples they know. But give them a taste of some of these old heirloom varieties and they tend to change their minds.

His farm is a perfect example. Over the years, he and his wife, Merby, have developed a large clientele who want and appreciate these different apples. They include Calville Blanc, the gourmet culinary apple of France; Ashmead's Kernal, an old English dessert apple that pairs well with a strong cheddar; and Cox's Orange Pippin, a dessert apple that dates to 1825. The Legos also grow Spitzenberg, a crisp, orangish apple that Thomas Jefferson brought to this country when he was an ambassador to France.

Last year, Mr. Lego received a $9,800 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assess the baking, drying, browning and growing attributes of 50 classic and new disease-resistant apple varieties. Along with firmness -- an important attribute in baking -- the apples were rated for acidity, brix (soluble sugar content) and size.

The results? The best eating apples proved to be Jonathans, Spitzenberg and Jonafree, a disease-resistant cultivar of Jonathan. The winner for baking was Northern Spy, a large, tart apple that holds its shape well when cooked but is also easy to peel and slice. But forget McIntosh; they get too mushy.

Operators of more than 40 local farms have been invited to the Urban Apple Festival, which costs $5 for adults and $3 for children. It is co-sponsored by Slow Food Pittsburgh, Sierra Club, East End Food Co-op, The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and the Penn State University Agricultural Extension Service.

The festival concludes Saturday with an apple pie baking competition for professionals and amateurs. Any type of pie is allowed, so long as it's made "100 percent from scratch" using local, identified apples (Red Delicious, of course, are verboten).

Entries are due by noon with a $4 entry fee at the Union Project, 800 N. Negley Ave. Festivalgoers can eat the pies, after winners are selected and prizes awarded at 1:30 p.m., for $2 a slice. (For contest rules, go to slowfoodpgh.com.)

Last year, Eric Chabou of Ma Provence in Squirrel Hill took the grand prize in the professional category for a French apple tart, something Mr. Gibbon, 71, says he himself learned to make at the Cordon Bleu in Paris decades ago.

"So we have to storm the Bastille and restore [the title] to the Americans," Mr. Gibbon says, laughing. "It's a matter of pride."