Here is a video update with some thoughts and pictures about some new seedling apples that were first tasted last month.
Three of the new seedling apples tasted last month have turned out to be quite interesting and probably all keepers. All three had enough fruit (10 to 30 apples each) to get a good idea of what they are about as I ate my way through their late september to mid October season. Having enough apples of each allowed me to taste specimens all the way from underripe to overripe and mostly in between.
Cherry Cox x Grenadine: This has no number because the label was lost. The more I think about it, the more I think I made the cross, but decided to only pursue the crosses that had Grenadine as the seed parent. Or, I may have just lost track of the tag. Regardless, in a row of unlabelled seedlings from my first year of cross pollinations, I picked out several with redder bark and leaves to keep, hoping they would have red flesh. So far 4 of 5 do, including Black Strawberry. The fifth one hasn’t fruited yet. Most were grafted onto foundation trees, but this one I left to grow in place in the garden. 10 years later, it finally made a lot of fruit. I can tell it’s a cherry cox grenadine cross from both flavor, appearance.
It has better texture than cherry cox or cox’s orange pippin, more of a modern style apple flesh, whereas the Coxes tend toward grainy and coarse. As they ripen the flesh tends to become tender. This apple is fairly crisp and easy to eat, with plenty of juice. The sugar acid balance is very nice, and a little more toward tart than many of my seedling apples are. The flavor is nice, fruity, often a distinct cherry flavor. The cherry flavor has not been as strong as a really strong Cherry Cox, but it’s a definite stand out trait of the fruit. Like other cherry flavored apples, there is also a hint of Anise, but it stays in it’s place as a background flavor for the most part, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
The size is variable, but the largest ones are good sized apples. The flesh can vary from no pink at all, to significant pink that shows through the translucent skin. It does not have a lot of what I would call “red flesh flavor” (usually berry or fruit punch-like) but it does have some. The Thin, easy to eat skin has a yellow background with coarse blushing and streaking. It’s a nice looking apple, if a little chaotic. The peak eating season here was about the first two weeks of October. I have seen scab on it, and I suspect it will be pretty susceptible, but it was a very light scab year, so I’m not sure.
I like this apple a lot. I would as soon or sooner eat them this year as anything else ripe in this early fall season. It’s main competition would be Sweet 16 and Sunrise. If I ask the questions, do I want a big branch full of these every year? and how does this compare to other apples of the season?, it’s all good news. It will definitely be headed out into the world and most likely scions will be available this winter via auction. The tree is on it’s own roots and good sized, so I should have a lot of scions which might keep the price down. It does not have a name yet, but some possible names are Mon Cheri, Mon Cherry, CherryO, or CandyO (Like The Cars song) Feel free to vote or throw ideas out. Someone on Youtube suggested sunset, but Cherry Sunset is a bit of a mouthful.
Cherry Cox x Grenadine, not a bad looker! Especially using the mason jar as a light filter trick.
Next up, introducing Amberwine. Now who would not want to try an apple with a name like that? This is a Williams’ Pride x Vixen cross (2015 #10) The shape is uneven and blocky at times. When ripe, the background color is rich amber yellow. The best ripeness indicator is when the bottom goes from light yellow to this rich amber hue. The flesh also yellows somewhat when ripe. The flesh is crisp and firm, hard when under ripe. The cells are fine grained. The pulp is a little odd. It loses it’s juice pretty easily, leaving a fine pulp, almost like wood flour. It’s a little odd, but it’s not excessive in quantity, it’s just different.
Some lovely rich hues on Amberwine and a subtly rich wine-like taste to match the skin and flesh color.
This apple is in what should be called the savory, or umami class. The flavor is more along the lines of sophisticated and subtle than sensational. If sensational apples like Sweet 16 belong in the candy isle, this would go in the wine and cheese aisle. It does remind of wine a bit, probably because umami is also a component of wine. Wines without it tend to taste thin, like mushrooms, meat, broths, seaweed and other savory foods, umami lends a roundness, body and depth to wine and to this apple. I didn’t try it with cheese, but it seems a perfect cheese apple, maybe better than a russet. I know, I know, it seems blasphemous, but very few people have even tasted these savory apples and they are another animal. While this variety does not have the levels of that characteristic seen in apples like Wickson and Vixen, it is the dominant effect and the trait that makes it compelling eating.
The season was early to mid October here. It’s parent Williams’ Pride is very scab resistant, so fingers crosses for good results on scab resistance in coming years. I really enjoyed eating these and wish I had more. I will likely have limited scion wood this year from the small tree.
Williams’ Pride x Vixen 15/10: This one is very much like an early, larger version of BITE ME! Just as it’s season has ended in mid October, BITE ME! is starting to drop a few apples. So that timing alone makes it interesting. It is a medium sized, usually very conical apple. The flesh, like BITE ME!, is best described as tender and coarse. It is also in the Savory/Umami group. So far though, it has less of that flavor than BITE ME! BITE ME! is a scab magnet, so I’m hoping this will show scab resistance and improve in flavor over the next couple of years. For now, I’m holding it back for further assessment.
Just a couple of days ago, I ate the last apple of each of these three. I consumed them one right after the other and was impressed with all of them. The cherry cox seedling had a distinct and yummy cherry flavor, with good texture and nice acid/sugar balance. Amberwine had the intriguing, unique depth and richness of its savory class. And the Early Bite-me-like one was just nice to eat, with enough malty character to make me very happy to chase after it and finish it. Of the little group of 7 Williams’ Pride x Vixen crosses, I’ve now tasted 4. Amberwine is a keeper, Twang was worth a second look (though it’s probably going to be a cull), 15/5 is worth further testing and 15/2 was large tasty and promising, but only produced one apple in August. These results are very impressive and there are 3 more yet to fruit in coming years. Look for scion auction announcements in this winter sometime.
