Grab Bag of Apples Reveals a Gem

Note: The remainder of the novel will return soon to my blog. This post about apples is time-sensitive, so consider it an intermission until the next segment of bad fiction arrives shortly.

It’s that time of year on the west coast of the U.S. Good apples start coming in. With apologies to summer apples, the first great apples of our season are Gravensteins, which I wrote about last year. Gravs are probably my favorite apples, but they are finished very quickly and do not keep well. You need to know when they are being harvested and strike quickly or you’ll miss them. I either make a trip to apple country or find a store that brings some to market while they still have some green behind those red stripes. Once they get mushy and yellow, I’ve lost interest.

Following close on their heels this year were the Honeycrisps. People in some northern climates know Honeycrisp apples well. When ripe, this is a terrific apple with a deep flavor that seems to develop best in cold weather, but most Honeycrisps in the west are lacking that extra dimension (either due to the weather being too warm or the growers picking them too early). As a result, most Washington and California-grown Honeycrisps are fairly lackluster, aside from their snappy texture. But this year was better: finally, we saw some smaller Honeycrisps in the stores (I am assuming from semi-dwarf trees that were planted relatively recently and have started to produce). These are very good, a pleasant surprise.

Don’t tell me about Fujis or Granny Smiths or even Golden Delicious apples yet. It’s too early. Anyone picking those apples on the West Coast before October should be sentenced to eat their own sour apples. Leave those things on the tree so they can develop some flavor and the Fujis can sweeten up.

The store near me was selling grab bags of heirloom apples from a local farm. I love a good mystery! And I love my apples. So I bought one and attacked it. Nice to see some ugly apples; often those are the best tasting ones.

Let’s see what they gave us. Here is a group photo though my kids may have eaten one or two of these before I catalogued each of them.

Russet

Russets: Mine and a photo of some Golden Russets from specialtyproduce.com.

It’s nice to see a russet in there. That’s probably Ashmead’s Kernel, though occasionally we’ll see small quantities of Golden Russet or Hudson’s Golden Gem being sold around here. All russets are a treat, so I'm not particular about which variety it is. They don’t look like much, but inside they’re delicious. Peel them and enjoy some sweet, nutty flesh that is somewhat different than most run-of-the-mill apples.

Stripey mysteries

Up next are these little stripeys. What are they? There are lots of striped apples out there, green over green. Too late for Gravensteins and too early for Jonagolds, which have a similar look right off the tree. Could be Honeycrisp, though the red stripes on those are usually more prominent. In fact, one of these is distinctly dull enough that it could be an early Fuji.

After tasting them, the last suspicion was confirmed: early Fuji for one (too early to pick those, IMHO). The second one had bright white, crumbly flesh inside. Upon tasting it, I came to the distinct impression that it was a Red Delicious, Mollie’s Delicious, or some other progeny of big red. Red Delicious apples in the store are completely flat in flavor (they might as well be made of plastic), but if you get one just off the tree, they can be good. Thick skin, crumbly light inside, and that faint taste resembling artificial sweetener: definitely in the Delicious family and this one was actually enjoyable.

Here is a photo of some Mollie's Delicious (a Red Delicious relative) at a market. Looks similar, so that may be what my apple was also. Source: specialtyproduce.com.

Macs

These ones are McIntoshes, I think. They could be Jonathans, but we’ve been seeing more Macs recently on the West Coast and they should be ripening now. McIntoshes are the most popular apple in other regions of North America (particularly the Northeast and Canada), while their relatives like Macouns and Cortlands are also popular in some of those places. On the West Coast, we like a little more sweetness or fullness in our favorite apples, but I won’t knock a Mac. Great apple.

Gala

This is a Gala. It’s redder than some, but you can see that buff yellow underneath. I’ll taste this one in a few days and correct the post if I’m wrong, but I’m not. People like Galas, but most people don’t know much about apples, so they don't have much of a reference point for comparison. I’ll gladly eat a fresh picked Gala that’s actually ripe, and this is getting into their season. But compared to better choices, the supermarket ones are fairly plain in flavor.

Newtown Pippin

Here is a Newtown Pippin. It looks like a Granny Smith. But for one thing, anyone picking a Granny this early in the season should be strung up; that’s a waste of a good apple that tastes much better picked late. For another thing, this has the russeting on top. It’s sour like the Granny and should have a piney taste right now. Pippins were old-time storage apples and they taste much better when they’ve been sitting in a cold place for another month or two. Even so, it’s more of a cooking apple. We’ll probably eat this one, but if I had a box of them, I’d want to store them in a cool place until the flavor chills out.

The Gnarly Gem

And then I noticed this one. Green, red, and gnarly. Not only that, but it has a russet pattern on the sides that makes my heart skip a beat. I turn it around, looking for something I don’t see: golden orange. But one thing is certain; this is a dense apple. It is noticeably heavier than anything else here. Could it be what I think it might be? Even without a splash of golden orange, there’s still a chance…

When I cut it and smell it, I’ll know for sure. The British can guess what I’m thinking. They get these every year, the finest apple in Britain, but it’s exceedingly rare to see one here. I even tried to grow one of these trees when I lived in a cool climate. It’s been several years since I’ve seen one, which is one reason I completely missed the possibility at first. I grab the cutting board and knife.

Crunch: there it is. Picked a little green, perhaps, but a bit of starchiness won’t bother me. I’m going to love this. I cut it into slices and pop the first one in my mouth. Very dense. And sweet! And tart! I’m overwhelmed by the aroma of that flavor. It’s like citrus and pineapple and vanilla all spinning around the flavor of a really, really good apple.

This is a Cox Orange Pippin, the real deal, from the bottom of a random grab bag of apples. I wish I had a bag of these, but I’m thrilled to find even one. I quickly eat half of it before I can stop myself, give the dog a taste, and then save the other half for my kids when they get home. Many people believe Cox is the world’s best apple. And right now, it’s hard to disagree.

Cox Orange Pippins on the tree. Wish I had a tree like this. Source: Stark Brothers Nursery, www.starkbros.com.