North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

I have 2 trees of what was supposed to be Egremont Russet.  I am pretty sure 
it isn't.  A few 
of the fruit have a very fine russet, but the majority have a smooth, 
somewhat waxy skin, 
sometimes with minimal russetting in the basin or cavity.  The apples are 
small-to-medium in 
size, round, with no ribs, but ireregular and a bit lopsided. ER is supposed 
to ripen in late 
September; 95% of my crop is on the ground today, Sept. 12 (zone 5b).  (The 
few which are 
still on the tree do come away cleanly, have dark bown pips and taste ripe.  
Last year I did 
starch index determinations also, and it was 6 by this point.)  So, it 
doesn't look like the 
pictures of Egremont Russet, it is an earlier apple, it is a sparse bearer, 
(E-R is supposed be 
very prolific).  But the really striking thing about it is the flavour, and 
it because of this 
extraordinary character that I think somebody may be able to give me a 
suggestion as to its 
true identity. (Normally trying to ID apples,even in one's hand is well-nigh 
impossible.)  This 
apple at first bite is sweet, crunchy, very juicy, but with considerable 
acidity and a definite 
flavour of cinnamon and nutmeg.  This cinnamon/nutmeg flavour becomes 
stronger over the 
next 30 seconds, and persists on the tongue for a good hour afterwards, long 
after the apple 
taste has faded.  It is so striking that I suspect that it may be used to 
identify it, as I have 
never tasted any apple even remotely like this.  So there you have it: what 
varieties have an 
overwhelming flavour of cinnamon/nutmeg?



Ha!  I seemt to have succeeded in attaching a picture.  Most of the fruit are 
like the left-hand 
one, with slight very fine russet in the cavity or the basin, or the centre 
one, with no russet at 
all.  Only an occasional one has the netted russet of the right-hand example.
The following section of this message contains a file attachment
prepared for transmission using the Internet MIME message format.
If you are using Pegasus Mail, or any other MIME-compliant system,
you should be able to save it or view it from within your mailer.
If you cannot, please ask your system administrator for assistance.

   ---- File information -----------
     File:  hts_1.PNG
     Date:  12 Sep 2012, 15:27
     Size:  164844 bytes.
     Type:  Unknown

Attachment: hts_1.PNG
Description: Binary data