April, 1985

The last 2,000 years in the history of Man the Cultivator have brought forth about 6,000 described apple varieties, starting with Cato, a Roman, in 178 B.C. and still going on annually with new varieties from experiment stations and nurseries.

A hundred years ago there were about 600 varieties known and grown in North America. Roughly 50 years ago, when orchards became more or less scientific production units, there were still about 60 varieties available to the consumer. More recently the numbers have dwindled to a handful which consumers now recognize.

Three quarters of our country's crop are made up of only four varieties. Old-timers grown up in rural Ontario may be familiar with, or nostalgic about Blenheim Pippin, Snow, TolmanSweet, King, Greening, Canada Reinette or "Russet" a generic name

for all varieties with dull olive-rusty skin.

People of British descent often ask us for Cox's Orange Pippin, Bramley Seedling, or Worchester Pearmain and others south of the border want Jonathan, Stayman, Gravenstein or Winesap. The terms pippin (seedling), Pearmain (apple from Parma, Italy) and reinette (mottled and spotted) have lost their original meaning and can be discounted. It is a fallacy to think that the apple varieties on our.markets were or are actual taste preferences of the consumer. She or he has little input other than cost for a limited choice. The commercial apple varieties of today are, quite logically, selected to optimize returns to the grower and to accommodate the distribution system rather than

to please the customer's palate. They have to be prolific, colourful, robust, uniform and of passable taste. In the past the consumer and the grower were not locked in a vicious circle but had a tremendous choice.

This past is irrevocable but we can reconcile it with modern living in a home orchard. Ideally, a small orchard of ten trees has different varieties, seasonally staggered in the proportion 1-2-3-4, meaning one tree from group one, two trees from group two and so on. They are either all dwarfs, semi-dwarfs, or full size depending on family and plot size, appetite and special ambitions such as cider or selling surplus.

Group 1: Early apples, ripening before September 1st.

Quinte, Mantet, George Cave, Lady Sudeley, Astillisch, Vista Bella, Prime Red (Akane), and Viking.

Group 2: Mid-season apples, ripening by October 1st.

Chenango, Merton Beauty, Prima, Priscilla, Ellison's Orange, Croncels, Gravenstein, Signe Tillisch, Egremont Russet, Alkmene, and Molly Delicious.

Group 3: Fall apples, ripening in October and enjoyable until the New Year.

Kidd's Orange, Sinta, Berne Rose, Cox Orange Pippin, Kalco, McIntosh, Mother, King, Black Oxford, Mutsu, Erwin Baur, Horneburger Pancake, and Lady.

Group 4: Winter apples, picked in October and November, keep until Spring.

Blenheim Orange, Honeygold, Tinsley Quince, Kandil Sinap, Adams Pearmain, Tumanga, Empire, Jonagold, Maigold, Golden Delicious, White Winter Calville, Melrose, Zuccalmaglio, Ashmead's Kernel and Northern Spy.

This is but a sampling from nearly two hundred varieties selected for their eating quality, out of over 600 varieties grown and tasted. Some, such as Quinte, Vista Bella, McIntosh, Mutsu, Idared and Golden Delicious are also market varieties but commercial apples are inferior in taste because they are picked prematurely and their life is often artifically extended.

Locating garden apple trees is not an unsurmountable problem, especially within the NAFEX membership. Also, since grafting is such a common activity, there is no need to expound on it here, save for one experience. About 25 years ago when I was more curious than knowledgable, I grafted an established apple tree to two dozen varieties. What a unique sight it was when they fruited! It turned out to be a great conversation piece but for many reasons it is not a good production practice. It is always preferable to grow each variety on its own tree, small as it may be. Ten trees on dwarfing rootstocks may be grown in the same space as a large tree with ten varieties grafted to it. Many fruits of mufti-grafted trees miss the kiss of the sun and do not develop their best flavour.

Many good reasons prevail for growing apples of garden varieties. They are, first, much better eating, second they are available when you want them, and third, at the peak of perfection from late July to spring. Garden apples also offer most essential remedies to modern mass culture, diversity and individuality.

If you are familiar with only the taste of store-bought apples a great and pleasant experience awaits you. Many apples have been named after the special flavour they are thought to possess: Pineapple Russett, Tinsley Quince, D'Arcy Spice, Moscow Pear, Winter Banana, Nutmeg Pippin, and so on. There are more flavour, aroma and other taste nuances in the apple than in any other fruit. Many are difficult to describe. I quote an apple connoisseur's flavour description of the Zuccalmaglio: "Strong harmonious fruitiness. Exciting and titillating with tones of wild strawberry, quince, pineapple, ripe pear and a fine floral touch. Penetrating without pungency. Sugars and acid in perfect balance." It is easy to see that standard flavour epithets like nutty, spicy, subacid, musky, perfumed cannot do full justice, but which supermarket brands would even qualify for them?

Differences do not stop with the flavour, there are also the texture of skin and flesh. Supermarket apples must be able to be stored in 850 lb. bins, dumped, shipped and still be presentable at the point of purchase. They have to be tough, hard and resilient. The skin, their natural package, has to be strong and leathery. Premature picking and long atmosphere controlled storage may preserve the appearance but the inside may be tastelessly crisp, rubbery and dry.

Garden varieties on the other hand can be eaten ripened, or later in the season, when they are still at their natural best. Many keep surprisingly well when handled with care and not dropped or thrown. Chenango has such a delicate tender flesh that too firm a grasp will cause bruising. Tumanga has a skin that does not seem to exist yet the flesh is crisp and bruise-resistant.

Garden apples also look different. Few of them are of the immaculate red, green, or yellow of the picture books, nursery catalogues and commercial apple ads. They may be striped, mottled, blushed or dotted. They may have irregular, multi-coloured blotches, rosy cheeks and russeted areas. Their colour spectrum reaches from creamy white to dirty black, from grassy green to dark purples with all kinds of yellows, oranges, reds and browns in between, sometimes hidden under a greyish bloom. To the modern unenlightened consumer, conditioned by the colour schemes of marketing, many of the garden varieties look flawed, curious or even unreal.

Shape and size are the least important characters. Market apples, especially Red and Golden Delicious have to be graded in form and uniform in size to fit the pockets of packaging trays. Garden varieties are unrestricted in their diversity. Kandil Sinap looks like a large slender goose egg. The blossom end of Tinsley Quince looks tied together in many folds. Lady is a miniature apple of one bite size. A horizontal slice of Horneburger Pancake will fill the pan. Curltail could be taken for a pear with its fleshy curved stalk. White Winter Calville is lopsided and absolutely irregular.

Many outstanding varieties have been introduced in recent years but have not yet found favour with commercial producers. Planting an orchard of a new variety and hoping that in five or ten years when it starts bearing, the consumer can be persuaded to try it, is a risky business. The home orchardist has much more freedom of choice. He has only to please himself, not the wholesaler, store manager, government inspector or consumer. He or she can also grow any of the many "heritage" varieties which, surviving for 200 or more years, must have something to recommend them. Ashmead's Kernel, Newtown Pippin, Blenheim Orange, Golden Russet are examples of outstanding old varieties. Others, introduced with fancy names and superlative claims in the 20th century by eager nurserymen never lived up to my taste expectations. Such mediocre varieties were called Gloria Mundi, Beauty of the World, Bascombe's Mystery, Lewis's Incomparable, Allen's Everlasting, Chelmsford Wonder, Stump of the World, and there were various Seek-No-Furthers, Non-Suchs and Mammoths.

Nutritionally, as far as the Vitamin C content is concerned, garden varieties are often superior to the commercial varieties: McIntosh, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Spartan, Lobo, and Snow are all rated as poor sources of Vitamin C containing less than 10 mg Ascorbic Acid per 100 g of fruit. McIntosh is the worst with only 4 mg. Many, but not all, garden varieties supply more than 20 mg Ascorbic Acid. Typical examples are Esopus Spitzenberg, Ontario, King, Croncels, Tumanga, Maigold and Idared which is also a commercial variety. The White Winter Calville, a true gourmet apple, surpasses them all with 40 mg Ascorbic Acid.

If you eat an apple a day, which ones would you rather enjoy?