Here is a recent video where I’m going through the apple seedling trial rows taste testing fruits. It has been a very weak apple year. We paid for the epic crops last year with the trees taking a year off. It was also a bad drought year, which no one is talking about with all the other bad news. I’m hoping for a good rain this year, even if it means flooding. Too much water is better than not enough (he says from the mountain). If there is a fruit that can adapt to a changing climate, it’s probably apples due to the very high genetic variability and ability to grow and fruit from the tropics to siberia. Already, what you can grow often ends up being what will grow and fruit well in your climate, instead of which apples you actually decided you wanted to grow and eat. Another great argument for planting MORE APPLE SEEDS!
Aaaaanyways, this year saw the most intensely flavored apple out of the trial rows yet, Grenadine x Lady Williams 2011 #7 It is also at least equal quantitatively in flavor to any apple I’ve ever tasted. I think I’ve identified some of the flavors, but it is a mixed bag. One thing I love is when apples have these sort of artificial fruit candy flavors. I think this one has the relatively common watermelon candy flavor, but also with purple grape and probably more. Eating it tastes very familiar, as in childhood memories familiar. I think the reason I can’t exactly nail it is that it’s probably like taking several jolly rancher candies of different flavors and melting them together. But the feeling of familiarity is as strong and relevant as the actual flavor. It’s sort of like those smells that take you back to grandma’s houses or school and that may be more relevant than the actual smell. That happened to me the other day when I got an espresso maker at the thrift store and the smell of the plastic water reservoir took me back to camping in my grandparents travel trailer, drinking and eating from plastic bowls and cups and the smell of the water from the onboard plastic water tank. Well this flavor is like being back at the corner store as a kid spending a few cents on hard candies.
Other than the remarkable and strong flavors, this apple is not much of an eater. It has a good measure of tannin, the texture is not particularly fun and the skin is thick. It is definitely more in the cider making class. The acidity seems adequate to make good tasting cider, although I’m not enough of a cider maker to know if it’s good enough to consistently produce smooth sailing results without blending or adjusting. Though it has a red fleshed parent, there is no hint of red flesh, and not likely to be any in the future. I’m starting to suspect though that the red fleshed grenadine, which is a flavor standout among blood apples, is hiding much more in it’s bag of flavor genes than just berries.
But to have an apple taste good and have those flavors survive fermentation are two different things. Methodology can certainly make a difference, but some flavors are fleeting in cider production, and some are lasting. My prediction, if I will be so bold, is that these intense and delicious flavors will be able to survive fermentation and make some amazing tasting ciders. It may be quite some time until light is shed on the accuracy of that prediction. The tree has to be propagated more, and eventually come to bear enough to do a significant amount of experimentation. I’m not much of a cider maker, but I may go back to it and try doing some micro batches in mason jars just to start testing some of the accumulation of potential cider apples out of the row. But of all of them, this seems to be the most promising yet.
Speaking of accumulating potential cider apples, among the rest of a handful of possibilities, the aptly named Sugarwood, a Grenadine x Wickson cross fruited again this year. I’m still high on this as a potential cider apple and will likely be sending out scions this year. It’s virtues seem to be sugar, tannin, adequate acidity, clean woody flesh, a good measure of nice flavors and good hanging properties. I have a feeling it will also be a good producer.
The cute, diminutive and woody Sugarwood, coming eventually to a cider orchard near you!
I’m hoping for a much better apple year next year. I’m pretty sure that if the bloom season goes reasonably well, the trees will try to set a lot of fruit. I’d guess that 70+ seedlings will set fruit next year, most of them varieties that have already fruited, but a good measure of new ones too.
