Today I get to eat two excellent modern apples ("worth seeking!") that share a particular quality.
Competently managed, they both deliver peak eating in the spring.
Lady Alice, at right, has saturated flavors with wonderful malt notes and a substantial crunch. GoldRush presents pear and banana along with a dash of citrus.
Both are very welcome this time of year, and it feels extravagant, almost wasteful, to eat them together.
They are sharply different eating apples. I compared them four years ago.
What they have in common is that they are great in the spring. They get there, however, by very different routes.
Artful Storage
Where Alice and almost all apples require industrial storage to be edible in April, GoldRush is just fine with the level of refrigeration I can give it at home.
My bag of April GoldRush has never seen the inside of a big chiller or controlled-atmosphere facility.
Lady A requires special handling to reach her March peak. After a flurry of reports of bitterness and other off flavors (made in comments on this blog), Suzanne Wolter of the Rainier Fruit Company told us, among other things, that
Some apples take awhile to "wake up" once they come out of storage, Lady Alice may be one of them so we'll consider letting them breathe a little longer before shipping to market.
By contrast, GoldRush's natural keeping qualities seem to be about a cellular structure and texture that grows elastic rather than mealy.
There was not a hint of any awful crumpley mealiness in a GoldRush I had kept for a year and a half (not a great flavor though).
One reader suggested that GR was becoming a dried apple in slow motion.
Industrial storage is impressive, but year-old apples are not compelling. Doubly so in autumn, at least around here where there are so many great orchards and fresh local choices.
Tasting Notes
Alice, "woken up" from controlled atmosphere storage, is quite dense, even hard, with a substantial chunky crunch. Flavors include that great malt accent but also a floral note and generic berries and general sweetness.
GR, straight from my mudroom, is a bit tamer compared to Alice's saturated flavors, but also better balanced between sweet and tart. Its mix of banana, pear, and a hint of orange citrus is very good.
GoldRush is also just a little bit chewy, where Alice crunches more. There is no special synergy eating them both together, but these are two very fine apples.
My takeaway is that GR fares better by itself than in a duet with Lady A. These are very different apples and I might choose one over the other depending on my mood (if cravings have moods).
On balance, and not accounting for GR's astonishing qualities as a keeper, I'd say that Alice narrowly wins this bout. But what a treat to have both, and in April!
Links
- Lady Alice, GoldRush, and their 2017 head-to-head
- Industrial storage
- GoldRush as King of the Keepers, impressive even after a year and a half
- Alice's ripening technique explained, and GR as a slo-mo dried apple
- Her absence and welcome return in springtime, at least where I live
GoldRush sounds like a banger apple.
ReplyDeleteI managed to get my hands on Goldrush for the first time at the Troy (NY) Farmer's market a few weeks back. The flavor and texture were both excellent though I think they were a little starchy since the skin on all of them was still a tinge green. Maybe they would have been even better if allowed to hang on the tree a bit longer. Do they ripen up more after coming out of the fridge? Anyway, I grafted one last year on reputation alone, and feel vindicated in my choice now. I look forward to fruiting it and seeing how long I can get away with leaving them on the tree.
ReplyDeleteTreekeeper, maybe you have thoughts on this, but I think there is tremendous pressure on growers to pick early, especially for late-season fruit.
DeleteEvery day on the tree is a day when something could damage the apple, a bird in the hand etc. I doubt I have ever had a peak Granny Smith for exactly this reason.
I agree, that rationale makes sense for a commercial grower. Glad I don't have that constraint and can chase top flavor.
DeleteI'm in MA. The orchard where I buy GoldRush only start to pick them in early November.
ReplyDeleteThat said, one year the GoldRush were green. They were also starchy and bland. So now I buy yellow with a bit of blush. I don't think they ripen off the tree.
Good luck with the grafts.
I would say there is a slow maturation that takes place over the winter, that GoldRush peaks in the spring.
DeleteNot saying that is the same process as ripening on the tree. I have had green-tinged GR in April that, I assume, were picked before their time.