Mysteries Three

 What are they?

An old orchard, a mystery apple, and two more. In autumn.

What's not to like?

Come with me and review the what we know.

Venue

These apples grew in an abandoned orchard near Oshkosh, Wisconsin:

Today we explored the site of the Winnebago Co. Asylum / Poor Farm, est. 1865. There was a sizable fenced orchard there in 1937. Most trees are gone, but we found about 15 big, old apple trees (6 yo for scale). Next step: ID the trees pic.twitter.com/TLcBCZ2gOb

— J Mills (@urbnmicrofarmer) March 1, 2022

Many excellent varieties of apples originated in the Midwest. They might not ever have been widely known elsewhere, virtues notwithstanding.

Visual

Photos from J. Mills, who sent me these apples, provide additional visual details not present in my own samples:

Update: Visited these trees today to see how the fruit, if any, is coming along. Most trees are not in condition to fruit, but did find these. Yellow apples (left) have a touch of pink w/ tiny red/pink spots. There were larger fruits on the tree, but couldn't reach pic.twitter.com/Em6pC5wL5L

— J Mills (@urbnmicrofarmer) September 15, 2022

Note the small saturated red spots on Mystery A and the streaky blush on B.

(If the images won't load for you, click on the link to view them.)

Mills picked the apples in his photo in mid September. The ones he sent me spent about another ten days on the trees.

Based only on Mills's photos, I originally entertained the idea of Tolman Sweet for A and Westfield Seek-No-Further for B. But in person, the samples he sent me are not good matches for either.

(Westfield's blush can be saturated or streaky. When streaky, they can look a bit like the one in Mills's photo.)

More of Mills's extensive research can be found in the thread of Twitter posts. Based on aerial photography and old records, he suggests these trees were "probably planted in 10s or 20s, maybe earlier."

Samples in hand

Mystery A, which I had initially thought could be Tolman Sweet, is light yellow, though some of the samples have a slight green tint. The yellowest has a very (and I mean very) slight brownish orange blush.

The tiny red spots are dark and almost brown, and are lenticels rather than the beauty marks of pigmentation on Tolman.

These are mostly round, a little elongated, with slight ribbing. The calyx is quite shut.

Light yellow flesh is dense, fine grained, and crunchy hard. A is pleasingly tart, with spice and a lemon note rounded off by a whiff of vanilla.

This is not at all Tolman Sweet, which I think we had already ruled out. Nor is it anything I have had before. But I would seek it out, in season; I like it a good deal.

Mystery B is a glossy crimson, mostly saturated, over yellow, with many faint tiny lenticels. The apple is tapered and lopsided with only slight ribbing. It's calyx is slightly open.

Inside, white flesh with a yielding crunch bears flavors that suggest a McIntosh connection: vinous spice, including a little cinnamon. It is also nicely tart, more so than a Mac.

The peel is chewy and persists after the flesh has melted away.

Possibly the crunch would be crisper on a better sample, but this is not bad.

It certainly is not Westfield.

Tiny Mystery C, halfway between small and crab size, is lopsided and slightly tapered, with a little ribbing and a calyx that is closed tight.

It is green with faint red stripes, and has a crown of coppery russet around the stem well.

Mills's photo suggests these are not all as small as this one, but the size will make it challenging to taste properly—I only have the one.

C's medium-fine-grained flesh has a greenish tint and a decent crunch. Flavors are mild and attenuated and include table grapes, watermelon, and cucumber.

These unusual flavors are unlike anything that comes to mind.

Synthesis

I like all of these apples, especially A. They are all outside of my personal experience. 

At least, if I have had these apples before, they grow so very differently in Winsconsin as to be unrecognizable based on taste, texture, and looks.

With a history of 17,000 different apple varieties, most no longer with us, there is no reason to suppose that A is among the mere 337 varieties (and counting!) that I have sampled on this blog.

But of all those varieties, A is most like Maiden's Blush.

Which I doubt it is.

B could be part of the Snow family (which includes McIntosh), related to Mac if not a direct descendent. 

It might almost be Snow (also known as Fameuse), accounting for different growing conditions. But probably not.

I do not even have a sort-of twin, or frame of reference, for C.

Your move

This is fun, but I do not claim apple-ID superpowers. (Really. Though I occasionally get it right.) Perhaps my observations, though, will prove useful.

In the spirit of J. Mills's crowdsourcing, I pass the ball to you.

Any thoughts?