Apple of Mine

What is your favorite kind of apple to eat out of hand? – Pome Fan

My local Farmers Market offered dozens of different apples yesterday, the main Market will carry 100s of different apples on any given autumn Saturday, which is still only a fraction of the 7,000 or so apple varieties that are cultivated. The selection is overwhelming, especially considering until very recently almost all apples were either red or green.

My Market friends tell me the Honeycrisp is the most popular apple with their customers. The apple is well, honey sweet with a crisp bite. A relatively new hybrid, the fruit is an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, created in the early 80s. Like a lot of Midwesterners, the apple had to head west to come into its own. Popular with growers in both California and Oregon and more importantly, Washington, which is the US’s leading apple producing state, and is pretty much to orchards as Iowa is to corn fields.

Like market goers, I really like the Honeycrisp. But there are others; the Baldwin is a good apple, which on a quality scale is closer to Alex than Billy. Arkansas Black, Braeburn and the cidery Winesap are all noteworthy apples. I am pretty much willing to try any apple but I sometimes wonder if I am paying not so much for quality and flavor, as novelty. A little more mainstream - I am very fond of the Pink Lady. I actually like the flavor and texture but people constantly accuse me of what I really enjoying is saying Pink Lady – Not really an invalid critique either, the fruit does sound prurient but tastes good – sweet with a cidery bite.

Bridging the gap between the popular apples and the fruits with the smaller, critically acclaimed following is the Gala. The apple has as much indie cred as New Zealand’s other export, the Flight of the Conchords. The Gala is cross between the Golden Delicious and Kidd’s Orange Red. Created in the 1920s but not introduced nurseries until the 60s, the apple has cider-like nuances and a good firm flesh.

Red Delicious is still the number one apple sold and grown in the US. As I have touched on before, taste is a minor consideration in selecting varieties of produce to grow and bring to market. Storage and the ability to ship will trump the floral nuance of an esoteric heirloom variety every time. Red Delicious, a mealy, tasteless apple is an important export to the burgeoning Asian market. And is still a big seller domestically, grocery chains buy up the variety knowing the likelihood of one bad apple destroying a batch is minimal considering how durable the apple is.

But the Red Delicious is loosing market share as consumers demand more flavor. The aforementioned Gala, Pink Lady along with the Fuji – apples grown from stock developed in Asia and Australia/New Zealand are becoming more popular at the same time traditional apples – numerous varieties that all seem to have ‘Jon’, ‘Pippin’ or ‘Spy’ worked into their names are being revived.

Next Saucyman we will address what happened to all those apples Johnny Appleseed planted.