Apples – Post from 2016
IPM Apples
One bushel of apples weighs 32 to 38 pounds depending on variety and orchard. We are sourcing from Apex Orchard – Shelburne Falls, MA, Brooksby Farm – Peabody, MA, Cider Hill farm, Amesbury, MA and Cold Spring Orchard – Belchertown, MA. We source varieties from any of these four orchards. Price may change if a different that expected orchard is used. We will do our best to fill your request.Most apple descriptions taken from Apples by Roger Yelpson (c.1994 W.W. Norton & Co.)
Autumn Gala™ PPAF
Autumn Gala is a patented variety developed in the mid 1990’s by Harry Black at his Catoctin Mountain Orchard in Thurmont, MD. It is a mutation that ripens later than the standard Gala, thus the name. This variety extends the Gala season four or more weeks beyond traditional Gala season. The Autumn Gala blooms mid-season and pollinates with all other varieties of early, mid, and late blooming apples.The fruit is very pretty, medium size, conical to round with yellow-gold skin patterned with bright orange-red. Firm, juicy, fine textured, yellow-white flesh. A sweet apple with a hint of tart. An apple excellent for eating, pie-making and other baking.
Baldwin Apples
Baldwin began as a seedling in the northeastern Massachusetts town of Wilmington, sometime before 1750. The was named for a Colonel Baldwin, who grafted trees from the original seedling. The site of the forest tree is marked with a monument topped by an apple.The thick, tearing, skin is on the juicy side. Baldwin’s yellow flesh is crisp, coarse and juicy, with a spicy character that recommends it as a cider apple and for pies. This variety of apple keeps extremely well in storage.
Braeburn Apples
Braeburn offers a complex, sweet-tart flavor with a noticeably aromatic aftertaste. When cooked, Braeburn turns simpler but doesn’t go flat. As sauce, it needs little or nothing in the way of added sweetening. Braeburn also keeps well in storage.
Cortland Apples
Cortland comes across as friendly; it’s not a complex variety that will flood your sense gates, but it makes a good apple to accompany your sandwich. Or try it in pies and sauces. Cortland is suited for fruit salads because slices are usually slow to brown.
Empire Apples
This cross between the best-selling red varieties, Red Delicious and McIntosh, was introduced in 1966. Empire has proved superior to the parent it most resembles, Mac, in redness, flavor, and post-harvest life. Not surprisingly, Empire has caught on with both the growers and the apple-eating public.The creamy white flesh is crisp and juicy. Right off the tree, Empire is an excellent choice for eating out of hand if you like a loud, snapping apple that’s sweeter than it is tart. Empires are frequently added to cider blends and can be used for cooking. In storage, these apples keep their quality well.
Fuji Apples
The cream-colored, firm, fine-grained flesh seems something special from the first bite, as it fills the mouth with sweetness and juice. In taste tests, Fuji consistently scores at or near the top, and among late-maturing varieties it is a standout.Fuji is regarded as the best keeper of any sweet variety, and the apples retain their toothsome firmness for up to a year in refrigeration.
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Golden Russet Apples
Golden Russet is an early American apple, believed to have sprouted from a seed of an English Russet, It was a commercially marketed variety by the early 1800’s and won a following. The yellow flesh is crisp, fine-textured, and brightly flavorful, with a noticeable sweetness that made it a traditional favorite for hard cider. The apples can be used for cooking and drying. As with most russets, the apples keep well, but they need humid storage if they aren’t to get soft under the skin.Apple descriptions taken from Apples by Roger Yepsen (c.1994 , W.W. Norton & Company)
Honeycrisp Apples
Released by the University of Minnesota, this Honeygold and Macoun cross is a real crowd-pleaser. The fruit is large and the skin is 50-90% red over a golden yellow background. The flesh is cream colored and exceptionally crisp and juicy with sub-acid flavor. This should be savored as a dessert apple but can also be used in sauces.
Hudson Golden Gem Apples
Flesh is fine-grained, pale yellow to cream-colored, firm, and crisp. Flavor is sprightly at harvest but mellows to moderately subacid after storage. It is juicy with spicy, full rich flavor. We rate quality as very good at harvest and it improves after storage. Fruit retains its characteristic flavor and texture quality for up to 6 months in cold storage.Description taken from Purdue, Rutgers, University of Illinois
Mixed Apples – Firsts
Mixed bushels of apples. Mixed firsts will be a combination of up to 10 varieties of apples listed here. Large and small, but all of first quality.
Mixed Seconds
Will be mixed variety apples from Cold Spring Orchard. Second quality apples are generally best for cooking & processing rather than storing. There will be bruises, and there will be some loss. The price reflects this.
Mutsu Apples
Mutsu is a cross between Golden Delicious and Indo. It was developed in Japan in the 1930’s and arrived in the United States in the late 1940’s. The crisp, white flesh is juicy and has a touch of tartness, for an excellent dessert apple.In taste tests of Golden Delicious and apples descended from it, Mutsu scores on top. It does not make a particularly diverting pie. Sauce will have more flavor if you leave the peels on while cooking and then separate them with a strainer or colander. Mutsu is a worthwhile cider apple.
Northern Spy
Northern Spy apples may have originally been called Northern Pie Apple, and is also known as Red Spy and Red Northern Spy. It was found in an orchard at East Bloomfield, New York, with seedlings brought from Connecticut about 1800. The fruit is large, especially on young trees, and on well-colored fruit, there is a clear-yellow shade with bright-red tints, distinctly streaked with the yellow under-color, making the red almost scarlet, but fruit color can be quite variable.The white flesh is very juicy, crisp, tender and sweet with a rich, aromatic subacid flavor and is a good dessert apple and pie apple that is also used for cider. One of the best storing apples, Northern Spy ripens in late September and early October.
Pink Lady Apples
Cripps Pink
Cripps Pink – Firm, crisp flesh and a unique, tangy-tart, sweet flavor are characteristic of this apple. Snackers and bakers give the variety high marks in consumer tastings. Cripps Pink, also known as Pink Lady®, is a very late harvested apple (November). Crisp fall nights bring on the bright pink color that gives the apple its name. Originally crossed by Jon Cripps in Australia and introduced in 1985. A cross of Golden Delicious and Lady Williams.
Roxbury Russet Apples
Roxbury Russet may be America’s first pomological achievement, having been developed and named in Roxbury, MA in the early 1600’s. A look at one suggests how the idea of a good apple has changed over the centuries, Roxbury presents a dull green, heavily marked face to the world. But the crisp, tart apple has more personality than some of today’s supermarket standards. Its yellow-green flesh is firm and coarse textured. Roxbury is suited to eating fresh and cooking and long has had a reputation as a fine cider apple. As with most older varieties, it keeps well for months.
Suncrisp Apples
Suncrisp apples are medium in size with a large top tapering down to a rounder bottom. They have a yellow background overlaid with an orange-red blush; the skin is chewy and often russetted. The flesh is cream-colored and resists browning when cut open, with a starchy and somewhat juicy texture. The flavor is fairly intense, subacidic yet sweet. Some have noted pineapple and fruit punch flavors. The flavor mellows and sweetens with age. The Suncrisp apple is a modern variety of Malus domestica, developed by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. It originated from a cross of a Cortland and Cox’s Orange Pippin, crossed again with a Golden Delicious.
Suncrisps are best for fresh eating, but can also be used for cooking and baking. The Suncrisp is a very good storage apple, able to last up to six months if stored in proper cool, dry conditions. In fact, they taste much better after several weeks or even months in storage. Apples always pair well with cheese—try Suncrisps with aged cheddar or blue cheese, along with Marcona almonds.
Spitzenburg Apples
Spitzenburg apple was discovered around 1790 by an early Dutch settler of that name. It was found at the settlement of Esopus, on the Hudson River, in Ulster County, New York. Much attention was bestowed upon Spitzenburg apple when Thomas Jefferson ordered a dozen trees for his orchard in Monticello. Unexcelled in flavor or quality, the fruit is great off the tree, but flavor radically improves in storage. Medium apple with crisp, yellow skin covered with inconspicuous red stripes and russet freckles. Flesh is tinged yellow, firm, aromatic, and complex in flavor; a perfect balance between sharp and sweet.
Descriptions compiled from several websites.
