Friday, April 25, 2014

Gold Rush: king of the keepers

Half a year after picking, the Gold Rush apple is a fabulous, fabulous keeper.

I liked this apple to begin with, but confess I really did not know what to make of claims like this one from a grower:

We grow and sell hundreds of bushels of Goldrush every year directly to consumers who proudly show us samples of Goldrush they picked at our orchard the year before. (Emphasis added.)

Well, now I am a believer. I've just had one of these gems that had been waiting patently under no special conditions in a bag in my refrigerator. It was crisp, richly flavored, complex, balanced, and even a little spicy after 6 months.

Arkansas Black and Winter Banana are two hard-core winter apples, or keepers, that fare well over time. They are eatable in April but really peak in January or February.

The fruit in your supermarket also dates from last fall, but has been stored under high-tech controlled conditions, perhaps with a chemical aging inhibitor. And be honest: By April many of those apples are tired and old.

I know of no other variety that eats as good as Gold Rush after so much time using standard household storage.

Gold Rush is also extraordinarily welcome in April, when even the supermarket varieties are fading and the recent harvest from New Zealand and Chile has yet to reach New England. This apple knocks the socks off of anything else you can get right now.

I just wish I had a bag of them.

Here's my original review of Gold Rush and a later comparative assessment of its keeping qualities.

Update: Just finished my last of these on June 8. Past peak but still phenomenally good. Not at all mealy; a little rubbery though still crisp.

12 comments:

  1. I planted one of these after reading on Gardenweb how good they taste and their keeping ability. Once picking one off of my tree and tasting it I ordered two more to plant. I really like them when they are just picked with a acid sweetness, they do mellow in storage.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't really get it about these apples. Now I do.

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  2. Adam
    I couldnt agree more. And ageing them, not for crispness sake, but for sweet-tart complexity--when the apple gets a bit wrinkly, really brings out their best. Awesome, awesome apple. I am seeing more of them in the greenmarkets as well. I just bought some last week.

    Brad

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    Replies
    1. Greenmarkets! Brad, I hope you know you are spoiled where you live.

      I have to hunt for these in the fall and fight for fridge space for 6 months.

      Delete
  3. I just planted a Gold Rush on interstem and M111 roots (from Cummins) in my backyard. I confess I have never tasted one though, I chose it based on reviews of flavor and its grower friendly nature. Looking forward to tasting it a few years down the road!

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  4. Gold Rush seems to get rave reviews all around. I keep letting it hang and it actually degrades when over ripened on the tree. This year I'll be harvesting earlier and storing to see if I can get the results everyone else talks about. I have had them good enough that I put one on m111 and one on a m111/bud9 inter-stem. I've also used it as a parent to cross with a red fleshed apple.

    Adam, you might think about making a chest refrigerator. You can allegedly can just change the thermostat in a chest freezer. They're supposed to be incredibly efficient. It might not be super convenient for accessing stuff, but seems perfect for storing lugs of apples that you can lift out to get the ones below. I'm on solar power, so it would be my only option for refrigeration, as adding another regular fridge would draw too much power in the winter. Check out Axels here: http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/apples/perfecting-the-art-small-scale-apple-storage-t901.html

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  5. Yummy...This apple looks so sweet, I want to take this one.

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  6. Gold Rush are the hidden treasure of all apples. Smaller, crisp and tart, they are the perfect snack treat anytime. They harvest later that most and I wait for them and buy several pecks to pack away and enjoy through the winter...now as I have told you this...tell no one else about Gold Rush...my favorite apple! It's a secret!

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  7. Kevin, I am a fan too! I think the cat is out of the bag on this one though.

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  8. The chest refrigerator link from Anonymous is broken, but you can see the content via webarchive here:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20120321044014/http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/apples/perfecting-the-art-small-scale-apple-storage-t901.html

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  9. Hello, my name is Brandon and I run a YouTube channel on Agricultural history and plant pedigree (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT-yHieL5KiZkb5kvMGYOlQ?view_as=subscriber).

    I am making a video on the pedigree of Gold Rush, may I use your picture?

    Thank you for reading.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brandon! That is a very flattering request, and I am inclined to say yes.

      Can you let me know how to reach you so that we can hammer out the details of a site license? (My contact information is on my profile page.)

      Delete

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