Novaspy *

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. 

These superficial defects do not affect the eating quality of the apple.

We see them because its grower skips the dance of chemical sprays and inputs that commercial orchards must apply and add to produce flawless fruit.

My Nova is oval and medium-sized, with irregular yellow lenticel dots that are large and numerous in the blush and small and sparser elsewhere. 

The peel flora do add a yeasty quality to the sweet aroma of the uncut apple.

It has next to no ribbing, though some can be detected on very close inspection.

Nom nom

Biting in unleashes medium-coarse white flesh that chunks off but is also is a little chewy.

The apple is well balanced favoring sweet, and lively and slightly spicy with melon and a hint of vanilla and something citric.

The second sample is sweeter, with pear and cherry notes

How Spy-like is the Nova? I haven't got a Northern Spy to compare, but offhand I'd say the first sample is not much like.

But the second sample maybe is.

The apple that came immediately to mind when I took my first bite of Nova was Pink Lady (Cripps Pink). 

Flavor and texture are not identical (Nova is brighter, livelier, and less dense), but Nova's qualities evoked Cripps's for me nonetheless.

I wouldn't say that of my second sample. And I can't say why two from the same orchard should be so different.

Number two was also a little crisper.

Apart from all that, this is an agreeable and pleasant apple to eat out of hand. It is a strong choice in mid-November.

The original Spy is, of course, notoriously good for pie. Is Nova? 

Ask a baker.

Extra credit

• Northern Spy