Thursday, August 15, 2013

Lodi vs. Yellow Transparent smackdown

Lodi (R) and Yellow Transparent (R), both picked too soon

Lodi is one of several varieties heralded as a "better" more modern substitute for the flighty Yellow T. Consequently I have been wanting to put them head to head for several years.

Alas all this comparison served was to demonstrate the Tolstoy-esq truth that all unripe apples are unripe in the same way.

Apples that are picked this early suffer on many fronts, not just taste (more acid, less sugar, pine notes, and undeveloped flavors) but also with a spongy texture compared to flesh at its peak. These were nowhere near ready.

I confess that when I bought this very green Yellow Transparent I suspected it might be a Lodi, but when I put it by a real Lodi the differences were clear.

Yellow Transparent a week later. Alas, no Lodi for comparison.

I got some better Yellow Transparents the next week (still not at peak, but eatable), but alas the farmer who grows Lodi had picked them all by then.

This may have been a commercial success, but it was not a pomological one. A shame.

Note, however, the differences even between the two unripe specimens in my first photo. Lodi is conical where Yellow is a sphere. Yellow's peel is a lighter, milkier green that almost seems to glow from within, and its lenticels are larger and more prominent.

For the record these apples date from the 30th and 31st of July. Lodi was the riper of the two, barely, and thus marginally better.

Better luck next year.

2 comments:

  1. Hello fellow apple enthusiast!

    My name is Ben Linchuck and I am part of a small company in Upstate, NY called Rent an Apple Tree. We have two orchards located in Erin, NY that includes apples like Gala, Empire and McIntosh, among others, that we send 48 of during the harvest season to anywhere in the US for a fee. You can look at our website at http://rentanappletree.com for more information about our product. We are still in the process of getting off the ground and I was hoping that you, being an apple lover like ourselves, would write a blog article about us so your readers can find us. We also have a blog, rentafruittreeblog.com, and I would be more than happy to write an article about you and your blog to increase your reader population. My email is bll4@geneseo.edu is you would like to email me if you have any more questions. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope to talk to you soon about collaborating.

    All the best,
    Ben Linchuck
    Rent an Apple Tree

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ben, what a wonderfully creative idea. I'll drop you a line soon.

      Delete

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