I went to the Tower Hill harvest festival yesterday, and they were
offering antique apples from their collection at 50 cents apiece, so we
tried a few. The big hit with my family was the Ribston Pippin, which
was crunchy, juicy, and almost too sweet. I don't think I've ever had
such a sweet apple before.
Does anyone know why this isn't a commercial variety? It didn't look
especially ugly or anything, and the twig of Ribston that I have
grafted to my crab apple doesn't seem especially disease prone. (None
of my grafts have fruited, yet. Perhaps they don't get enough sun?)
Tower Hill Botanic Garden is probably in zone 5 (maybe 6?) and it's
close the the heart of Massachusett's apple country, so I know it grows
under "normal" apple growing conditions. It's true that it was so
sweet that is wasn't really "refreshing", but it was certainly pleasant
to eat, and I would 'ha thought there'd be a market for all that sugar.
Ginda
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