I left a few apples on my frankentree while I went camping for a week, and was concerned that they may have gotten too cold in my absence. The apples I’d left -Carousel, Montana Red, and Rubinette- were either just not ready (Rubinette) or had been prolific enough to be redundant (Carousel) or were left on as a test (MT Red.).
The temps here hit 23 F a couple of times in that period, and I was afraid that the fruit might have been damaged, but it all appears to be fine. I tasted a Rubinette and was really, really impressed. If you haven’t had a chance to try this apple keep looking. It rivals Karmijn de’ Sonneville and may be even better. Great crunch, texture, juice, sharp/sweet balance towards sharp, fabulously flavorful and aromatic … you can taste the Golden Delicious in its heritage, but it’s way more apple than GD. (Orange Pippin suspects GD’s Golden Grime parent comes through.) It has a sibling, Freyberg, which is said to be similarly impressive, but more like GD. Rubinette doesn’t seem to color up very much here and it’s not nearly as striking to look at as many apples. Oh, well. I can live with that.
The Carousel that hung through the cold snap are markedly better than those I picked about three weeks ago, but still not a favorite.
And I didn’t try the MT Red yet, as I haven’t been that thrilled with the apple.