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I got 2 of these possible apples from the Midwest Apple Improvement Association, one picked on September 26 and the other on October 10.
What's "possible" about 47 is that this variety could be selected for further development. Someday, it could get a catchy name and be available in orchards or supermarkets.
In the meantime, these two samples look similar: a yellow apple with green highlights, oblate, with gray lenticels.
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The blush on this conical apple is a wash of translucent orange, except for one saturated swath of deeper hue. Of course, that is where the light-brown lenticel dots are largest and most obvious.
Ribbing on this variety is negligible, and my sample, hazard du transit, is bruised. The underlying peel is a sunny yellow.
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Today's apple is (a) lopsided and (b) huge, with effectively no ribbing (meaning, sure, you can find some if you look closely).
It has a weak orange-red blush streakily spanning about a third of the peel, which is a very yellow shade of green.
Against this background, the otherwise light brown lenticel dots do not stand out unless filled with greyish matter that might be a kind of russet. 16 has a thick stem, an open calyx, and a satiny finish.
This apple is past its prime, with a bit of give and some small wrinkles on one side.
Nonetheless, my approach is to taste first and hope for a better sample next year.
There may not be a next year for this apple, as it is under development by the
Midwest Apple Improvement Assiciation
and is not guaranteed to make the cut.
But if "test 14" does make it into an orchard near you (with a catchier name), then you read about it here first.
This unnamed apple is large and oblate, with a red blush that nearly covers all the underlying yellow.
Striking tan lenticels jump out, while the merist of ribbing is only noticeable on close inspection.
The best cooking apples, I find, are often not very good to eat out of hand.
But this one looks promising and smells wonderful—a spicy cider aroma—so we'll see.
Today's apple is courtesy of David Doud of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association.
The apple doesn't have a name (and may never earn one), but this is the breeding co-op that brought us Evercrisp.
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The name "Hermann Mac" suggests the apple is is a sport of McIntosh. If so, it is one that ripens later than the original version.
This sample, from a home orchard, has superficial defects including sooty blotch and flyspeck. These are two wonderfully descriptive names for different fungi that live on the peel and do not affect eating quality.
Today's apple is a "new" Northern Spy–type apple from Nova Scotia (get it?). It's one of the "Nova" series bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
This Nova, from a home grower, exhibits both flyspeck (which has nothing to do
with flies) and sooty blotch (which has nothing to do with soot) over an
uneven orange-red blush and yellow-green peel.
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| The sun sets on the last farmers market of the year in Davis Square, Somerville, where deals can be had. |
The last market of the year closed cold but bright on the day before Thanksgiving.
This medium-sized, slightly tapered apple has a rich (but nonetheless striped) red blush that covers most of an underlying yellow.
Tiny light lenticels widely spaced, ribbing, and a bit of natural gloss, round out the classic look. Mine bears a sweet cidery aroma.
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| The apple trees bask in the low light at Hutchins Farm earlier today. |
This week has been an apple hunt for me. I've picked up some Melrouge, Winesap, Blushing Golden, and Arkansas Black.
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I do not know what this little apple may be, if it has a variety name. I just prefer to call it something other than "unknown crabapple 1"
Henderson is a personal nickname.
I shall be surprised if this is in any way good to eat. It may be a spitter.
Halloween marks the border between abundance and scarcity, between summer and winter, between the living and the dead.
Today we are well into hoarding time, scavanging time, pirate time, keeper time.
Four years after I first had this elegant hobo of an apple, I have the opportunity to take a second bite.
I might learn something new, or at least have a very nice (two-star) snack.
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These Japanese apples have the same parents. How far does the family resemblance go?
I conclude my long deep dive into Braeburn with two examples bought at a local farmers market on October 20.
The project was inspired by a comment from a reader, who suggested that Braeburn was a fickle, variable apple that could not be relied upon to be the same from harvest to harvest or day to day.
Another year, and another photo of a raw, wet ending to farmers market in Arlington earlier today.
There goes the punch bowl, just as the party was getting good.
There were 24 kinds of apples at the farmer's market in Union Square (Somerville) earlier today.
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My two Shizuka apples are large and spring green, slightly oblate spheres decorated with crackles of tan russet and darker green lenticels that have small light centers.
One of my samples, shown, has a faint pink-orange blush in a region of peel that is almost yellow. (It also has some tiny bruises.)
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Hype about Mountain Rose has become a cloud of uncertainty about these apples. Are they the same as Airlie Redflesh, aka Hidden Rose?
The stroke of a knife will help shed light on that.
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JUST NOT GREAT, THIS YEAR
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We've had an unusually wet growing season this year, and the apples have soaked up the water and grown fat.
A juicy apple is nice, but not every variety benefits qualitatively from this aqueous bounty.
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Macoun, the queen of vinous apples, is just not 100% if grown in Virginia.
King David, apple of the South, does not reach its peak here in New England.
I shall miss Macoun.
I am not going anywhere. But the climate is.
The Nature Conservancy finds that the climate in neighboring Vermont is likely to "become like that of southern Virginia."
The good news, I guess, is that Virginia boasts some great apples.
They just aren't the ones that do well up here, for the most part. The ones linked intimately with our sense of place.
The ones we love.
Sure, people grow northern apples in the south. Vintage Virginia Apples lists many familiar varieties, including McIntosh.
But do they grow well there?
I have heard boasts that McIntosh (a Canadian variety) does not realize its full peak qualities south of Maine. Even today.
What hope then for the breed in the brave, new, hotter future?
Also climate and apples in this thread on Twitter
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In my review of this apple ten years ago, I hoped to revisit Priscilla once better samples came my way.
These are a few weeks earlier and better, one a squat medium and the other quite large and a bit tapered.
They have a little ribbing and a lovely deep red blush, streaky in spots, over yellow, attractively freckled with tiny light lenticel dots.
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My samples are large tapered apples with a variable orange-red blush.
Probably, these Rubenses are well-colored sports, hence the "red." If so, I imagine the blush is weaker on plain old regular Rubens.
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There is not really anything new to say about the wonderful Chestnut Crabapple that I have not said before.
I just grabbed this one at farmer's market yesterday because it is so darned pretty.
Last Sunday, irregularly observed in these parts as Talk Like A Pirate Day, I went a little nuts buying apples.
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Today the wholesale-retail apple system has coughed up a brand new variety bearing a contender for Most Fwow Up Name of All Time.
But let's not hold that against the apple, which had no role in the marketing brainstorming or trademark registration that produced the name. That is all on us human beans.
HunnyZ is large and moderately ribbed, broad and a little tapered, with
an orange-red blush over light green yellow.
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Got these two truly great apples at farmers market on Wednesday.
To be specific, there's McIntosh, the tart, balanced king of autumn in these parts. A steal at $2.50/lb.
Next to it is the Chestnut Crabapple, a little wonder that is not to be missed. Proudly marked "Heirloom," it went for $4.00/lb. (!).
So, what makes it an "heirloom"?
The future is very bright for the apple harvest this year, according to the growers interviewed by Liza Zwrin and published in the Boston Globe on September 8.
If nothing goes wrong.
But curiosity, and respect for yours, led me to buy two of these at a farm stand in Bolton on August 13.
JUST PEACHY
These little guys, from Indiana, have exactly the same colors as the local peaches here in the Bay State right now.
They are a sight for sore eyes. I have not tasted a new variety since last October.
These are Trailmans, and they are crab sized, most just a bit over an inch wide.
Have I been slacking off lately?
On this anniversary of my first blog post, I am still here. Still exploring the pomacious fruit, and hoping to score some fresh (to me) varieties this season.
This pandemic year has not been a great one (for any of us), and I have had some other projects making demands on my attention. But for me, writing is a kind of balm and source of forward motion and hope.
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Check back at the website if you do not hear anything for a while.
He was reflecting on the variability of his favorite apple.
Until he follows through with this noble plan, I am filling in with a report about a dozen different Braebs I've eaten this year.
The three apples in my lead photo are all Braeburn, purchased on the same day from the same supermarket (January 26, Burlington (Massachusetts) Market Basket, "batch 'A'").From left, striped and blocky; orange, striped, and conical; solid red, broad, and tapered.
It is not especially a favorite of mine (not that I have a problem with it), but it is not hard to enjoy either.
With the arrival of summer, and apples from New Zealand and other points south, I started to find other variations in quality. Some of those apples just tasted better.
Based on that, I appreciate Braeburn as an apple that can have an appealing mix of floral and spicy flavors, with (sometimes) a distinctive orange note.
Too much overpowering sweetness was sometimes detrimental, but not always.
The variability is illustrated by two New Zealand apples I bought on June 10. These bore PLU stickers from the same grower. One of them was really good, and the other had inferior texture and only mild flavors.
Of course handling is an issue, but I wonder if Braeburn is not a good traveller or keeper, by modern standards.
Perhaps the wholesale-retail distribution system is not able to give the Braeb the TLC it deserves.
Another thing I noticed was that the Braeburns from their native New Zealand looked really different from the others.
I also learned that Braeburn is out of favor, at least among retailers! I could only find them in a few places. They were easier to find a few years ago.
In my 2009 report I said the apple
is satisfyingly crisp and juicy, with a mild, sweet flavor. Although the tastes are mostly generic, there is some complexity and a hint of oranges.
In this experiment, I was looking for some additional flavors and qualities. To avoid repetition, I only note differences from my 2009 review.
A1) Tasted on January 29 (conical, orange and red stripes over yellow, moderately ribbed) Floral aroma. Closed calyx. Breaking crisp, juicy, mild, attenuated, a little bland. Very like 2009.
A2) Jan 30 (tapered, saturated deep red covering nearly all, moderately ribbed, calyx mostly open) Slightly less crisp; flavor slightly less attenuated
A3) Jan 31 (tapered, striped, moderately ribbed, calyx closed). Right in the same zone.
A4) March 5 (tapered, a little blocky, striped, calyx slightly open) Past prime though still good to eat: a little soft and on the road to mealy. An orange note elevates the flavor profile of this one.
The next batch are from the same source, purchased on May 20. I was hoping for some fresher samples from New Zealand or Chile, but it was not to be.
B1) May 22 (on the blocky side, still tapered, good stripy color, cider aroma, prominent lenticels, open calyx, ribbed). Good quality, on the dense side, sweet, spice and a hint of oranges. Yellow flesh is tinged with a little green.
B2) May 29 (Tapered, leaning. Clenched calyx, so less ripe? Painterly color, red brushstrokes.) Hard, dense, breaking, but also a little bit of granular disintegration; sweet; flavors a tad less clear and assertive, but some spiciness. Maybe orange, maybe not.
Batch "C," also from Market Basket, was Chilean, but disappointing. I only recorded one of these.
C1) June 5. (Handsome, tapered, good color, ribbed, calyx mostly closed.) Light-yellow flesh definitely a step on the long road to mealy, though still good. Generic spice and fruitiness melded. If this is what a Chilean is like, I'd hate to have a domestic. Disappointing.
June 10 purchases are group "D." All from New Zealand, and different! These are blocky and big. They are more ribbed and have closed calyxes
Check out the broad shoulders, asymmetry, and ribbing of these NZ Braebs:
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D1) June 11 (wide and very ribbed; blush is streaky and calyx is closed). Firm and breaking crisp w light yellow flesh and great flavors of flowers, orange, and spice. There are some green streaks in the flesh and a little graininess but probably the best Braeburn I have ever had. Moderately juicy.
D2) June 12 (squat, very ribbed, and lopsided, leaning to one side; streaky blush pretty full on the sunward side, and a bit of russet in the stemwell). Crisp but, again, granular, with the floral and spicy note, but also something a little sour in the background and even a touch of banana. Not really much orange this time, never strong to begin with.
I bought the next batch on June 20 from Idlewild in Acton. These are also from New Zealand, but a different grower than the previous batch.
They are also blocky, lopsided, and very large. Although they look similar, their quality differs.
E1) June 23 (tall and tapered with a closed calyx and streaky blush, asymetrical, and ribbed) This one is hard—it is jaw work to get the first bite. Great crunch, sweet with corn syrup and spice, and a floral note. There is a little orange or tangerine present, but it is nearly overpowered by the sweetness.
E2) July 3 (broad, lopsided, ribbed and with a streaky red-orange blush, calyx closed). I should mention that these wide apples are very large. The texture is not nearly as good, it's a little soft and granular, and the flavors are blurred together and unremarkable. Could this be a result of just 10 days in the fruit drawer of my refrigerator?
Finally, for my study in contrasts, on July 2 I found these two Braeburns in the same bin at a supermarket in central Massachusetts (another Market Basket, this one in Athol).
These look so different I would not have pegged them as the same apple. (Would you?)
The tall skinny fellow came from Chile, and the broad-shouldered one from New Zealand.
F1) July 7 (Chile, less blushed, and over yellow only barely tinted green; moderately ribbed, tall, tapered, calyx closed). Chile's flesh is slightly granular but still crisp and juicy, and presents with the strongest floral taste so far. A little spice and citrus is also present.
F2) July 9 (NZ, ribbed, big, broad, thick stubby stem, dark streaky blush). This is another Braeburn with grainier flesh and flavors that are melded and more subdued. I found some floral qualities near the Calyx end. Though good to eat, there is nothing distinctive about this sample.
I also ate other Braeburns from these batches, but did not record them.
Obviously missing from this investigation: a fresh local Braeburn. That will have to wait until the fall.
In the meantime, it seems like a good time to wrap this thing up!
Mike, the next move is yours.
Update: here is the fresh local report, "Batch G." A fitting conclusion!
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The London-based People's Trust for Endangered Species is mapping its Traditional Orchard Survey, an ongoing project to identify orchards in the United Kingdom.
Another group maps community orchards in England and Scotland.
This distinctive big green apple is named for the Australian farmer who discovered the variety growing in a trash heap.
Granny's fans are maverick lovers of tart in an ocean of sugary apples.
In person, the apple bears a good deal of offsetting sweetness alongside its citric tang. Lime, pear, and cane sugar balance together.
The six weeks leading up to the start of the harvest feel like they are each a month long.
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| crackles |
To pass the time, can you tell which apple made me ask, "what if you diluted one Cox's Orange Pippin into a peck of Red Delicious?"
What a marvelous name! What do you think it means?
