North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Growers around here usually just call crispy apples hard and almost all the new varieties come off the tree hard.  Apples are to fruit what grain is to carbohydrate staples (with potatoes on the other end from grain).  Apples, with the exception of Asian pears, are by far the most storable common fruit and the best to store are hard.  Macintosh has a very nice snap off the tree (without being hard) but turns into sauce shortly no matter how you store it.  Same thing with Gravenstein and Cortlandt.  Most of the new varieties maintain their texture well in storage which is an advantage even to home growers.

 

Macintosh does hold its aromatics well but many other apples lose some aroma and flavor in storage.  I find this to be the case with Mutsu which holds its texture very well, but not its flavor- it has little aroma to lose to begin with.

 

Of the new varieties, I too am a fan of Pink Lady, which I just recently discovered can be successfully grown in my zone 6.  I picked a few yesterday from an orchard I manage and although a little more season might have been helpful it is already a very good tart apple.  I'm always a sucker for a good dense fleshed apple and this is another great one out of storage.

 

No one has mentioned Braeburn, which I gather is tough to grow further south but is a great apple here and far superior from my trees than from a grocery store-  just because a cultivar is common doesn't mean its flavor can't be unusual.  Braeburn also stores very well, has plenty of snap, and bears extremely early (weak grower), even on the most vigorous rootstock.  It's great to graft on top of vigorous growers to form the last tier of scaffolds (so's Goldrush).

 

Probably the best storage apple of all that I grow is Goldrush, which as I mentioned in an earlier post, is quite tart up here off the tree but mellows and gets sweet and rich in storage.  It does shrivel if you don't protect it from dehydration but but even the shriveled apples have plenty of snap.  Fuji, of course, stores equally well when it doesn't break down, but you have to keep a closer eye on it so the rotters don't spread.  Fuji doesn't shrivel.  Is that because the skin releases less moisture?

 

I'd like to hear of more really good heirlooms for storage.  I always try to have a supply of Golden and Roxbury Russets (the latter is easier to grow) in my cellar.  Winesap is good as well as is Newton Pippin and Arkansas Black.  In my climate Baldwin is also quite good if the season is right and it's hard enough off the tree.  Do any of you have experience with Swaar?

 

I am mourning the loss of this years supply of Braeburns which went through the digestive systems of two late raiders of the raccoon variety.  How do these creatures taste, anyway?  I've wasted an awful lot of their meat over the years including these two.

 

Alan Haigh, the Home Orchard Company, southeastern NY