When I was in my early 30s and lived in rural Rensselaer County, New York, I regularly shopped at an East Greenbush farm store called Appleland. I have always eaten an apple a day, so for me this store was a glimpse of paradise. Yes, they also sold cider and pumpkins and Indian corn, which only added to the charm. I remember the owner, Ray Lemka, showing me the big walk-in cooler where he stored the big wooden bins of apples. It smelled so good in there!
So I was perfectly happy to be the recipient of two deliveries of heirloom variety apples from Out on a Limb CSA earlier this fall. Some friends of a friend, owners of Rabelais, a bookstore specializing in cookbooks, belong to the CSA. They were the conduit for this welcome gift. I agreed to write a review of the apples in exchange. It was the least I could do!
In the first delivery were four varieties of apples: Milden, Red Baron, Red Blaze, and Wolf River. According to the newsletter from the CSA, all of these were organically grown. The newsletter writer noted that this is the reason some of the apples don’t look as “perfect” as the ones we usually see in the supermarket. These are more likely to have interesting markings on the skin, or to vary somewhat in size within the same order. The Mildens were relatively large and globe-shaped, yellow-green in color with a red blush. Indeed, some had splotches on their skins. These were crisp and tart. This is a variety from Alton, NH that dates back to 1865.
The Red Baron variety was bred at the University of Minnesota in 1969. There were only four of these in the bag. They were all different sizes. This variety is narrower at the blossom end, like the Delicious apple that is its genetic predecessor. The skin is red with yellow streaks. I found these to be somewhat mealy in texture and not terribly flavorful. Probably best for cooking.
Like the Red Baron, the Red Blaze apples were narrower at the blossom end. They were crisp, juicy and tart. My notes indicate that they had a good shelf life, too. I was disappointed that there were only two of these apples in the order–it is a very rare variety and the farmer only has one tree. They were small, with red skins freckled with yellow. This variety may have originated near Mercer, ME sometime before 1900.
The Wolf River apples were very large, flattened globes, streaked red and yellow with freckled skins. This variety originated near Wolf River, WI in the 1870s (hence the name). They were also a bit mealy and tart, better for cooking. In fact, after I tasted each of these varieties, I took the ones that weren’t great for eating fresh and made a batch of applesauce. Oh, it was lovely!
Just as I finished the applesauce, another bag of these tasty fruits came my way. And who was I to argue with this good fortune! This package included Fameuse, Jonathan, Spencer and Wagener apples, all conventionally grown. I would observe that some of these apples nevertheless still showed some of the skin mottling that would not make them candidates for supermarket sale. Not that I’m complaining, you understand!
The Fameuse variety has unknown parentage, although it’s thought to come from Quebec or perhaps even France. It’s also known as a Snow apple, for its white flesh. It is thought to be a parent of the very popular McIntosh apple. These apples were smallish, mostly spherical, red with streaks of pale green. They had brown scabs on the skin, which did not affect their lovely crisp tartness at all.
Jonathan is a very well-known and popular variety that originated in Woodstock, NY in the early 1800s. These were large apples, spherical in shape, red with yellow streaks at the blossom end. I found them a bit mealy, which surprised me as I remember loving Jonathan apples when I was a child!
Like the Fameuse, the Spencer apples showed some interesting mottling on the skin. These were narrower at the blossom end, red and light green streaked with lighter golden flecks–very pretty despite the mottling. A cross between Golden Delicious and McIntosh, the Spencer was introduced in British Columbia in 1959 but is not often grown commercially. I found these apples to be crisp, juicy and flavorful. They did not get added to the second batch of applesauce I made!
Neither did the Wageners, large, flattened globes of green with a red blush. Not only were these crisp, juicy and flavorful, they were also intensely aromatic! This variety originated around Penn Yann, NY in the late eighteenth century.
Yes, trying all these apples reminded me to explore varieties and got me into the habit of making applesauce regularly. Maybe next year I will join this CSA myself! It’s run by John Bunker out of Palermo, Maine. He may have a waiting list…and he will have to find a new place for people in Portland to pick up their orders because the bookstore is closing its retail operation.
(Editor’s note: Out on a Limb even has a blog.)
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