No. I live in Bulgaria. Here sinap type of apples are very common. None of them is early ripening. Sary Sinap is not common here, but is common in the neighboring countries. It’s been a commercial variety in some of them. Here is a description in Ukrainian:
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I took the liberty of running the entry you made through google translate:
“Sari-Sinap is a Crimean apple tree. Yellow synapse, Sarah synap, Sinap Sarah. Trees are powerful, with a high pyramidal crown, durable, unpretentious to soil conditions, at the time of fruiting enter the 10-15th year. Fruits of medium size (100 g), almost barrel-shaped, sometimes cylindrical in shape, when removed from wood yellow-green, then golden, flesh white, dense, wine-sweet taste. Maturation occurs at the end of December. Consumed fresh, very well stored until June we…”
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Hi Hristo- You make some valid points. I do not identify the apples myself as I barely know a Red Delicious from a Yellow Delicious. We use the experts at the Temperate Orchard Conservancy. I consider them the best in the US. They ID’d the Sary Sinap before I found documentation at WSU that the apple was grown at the university. We always try to establish documentation of existing in our region. WSU not only tested Sary Sinap but also many Russian and Hungarian varieties. The Hungarian apples Eper and Mihalyfi were documented and then found near WSU just a couple of years ago. Both Bussey and an article by Emil A Meyer, garden inspector and lecturer at the Agricultural Institute, Moscow, state the apple is an autumn apple (late September). For this region September are autumn (fall) apples, October are winter apples, and July and August are summer apples. I highly recommend this apple for our part of the country. Its only competition in July is the Yellow Transparent, which is more of cooking/baking apple. I consider it the best July eating apple and I highly recommend it. Emil Meyer also states the Sary Sinap is one of the rare apples that grow true to its seed. I sent seeds to the USDA station in New York last fall so they can investigate this claim. Thank you for this discussion. Dave
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I don’t know much about Central European apples, but you may want to check if the University grew a Danish apple called Guldborg at the time.
From your picture and your description it is the first apple that comes to mind and a very good early apple.
https://www.sonneruplund.dk/eng/html/Guldborg.html
It has the same shape and coloration. Also the time frame matches, it was sold in Denmark from around 1870 and had acquired quite a reputation there at the time the university imported European apples around the 1900’s.
I’ve just seen the one picture you show here, so not sure - but it may be worth checking.
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Question about Gravenstein.
Do you pronounce it GravenSTEEN or GravenSTINE? I’ve heard it both ways. A New Englander uses STEEN. A New Yorker says STINE.
Regional difference? One more common than the other?
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I live pretty close to Sebastopol (California), once the center of Grav production in the US, and I still hear it both ways. I’ve never been sure which is considered preferable.
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Pronounce it with German language-inclined in mind, it would be “stine”
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Indeed, though I’m not confident that the German pronunciation is necessarily the preferred one in the US. I’ve actually heard the “STEEN” version more frequently here, for whatever that’s worth.
A lot of folks avoid the issue (and extra syllables) by simply calling it a “Grav”.
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I looked up several non-US sources on the Sary Sinap and they all mentioned it was late ripening and very long storing. e.g. Sary-Sinap | Article about Sary-Sinap by The Free Dictionary is one. Also the USDA watercolor above is dated June and the above article says that the apple keeps until June, which lines up. Not sure how you are going to draw an August ripening apple in June. So that ID doesn’t seem right to me. Not sure about the Guldborg either, but at least the ripening time aligns and both have a ribbed basin and Sary Sinap does not.
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I agree that from the picture it doesn’t exactly feel like a match with Goldburg.
Still, from the description I would try to look if the University had this one or other similar Danish apples. I would look more into Northern European or Baltic apples and try to see if they imported any of these rather than Central European apples.
Guldborg ripens in September in Denmark, but is already great to eat here (Netherlands) in early August, and I am just 500 km (350 miles) south of them, so these Baltic apples can ripen really early when you grow them in warmer climates.
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This photo was taken in the morning, Maiden Blush looks to be ripening fast (debut samples this year) & the dustiness is leftover Kaolin from removing orchard sox with Kaolin added to the sox before application. Since the green shaded side is turning to cream & they still gain size, I will wait until the fifth of August to see if any will pick easily.
Very curious to find how they play in this yard - never had the pleasure - will check weight, Brix, keeping, dry a couple (reputed to stay white when bitten/sliced), fresh, baked & in sauce. Since there are only 10 this time around, I must carefully monitor all I can learn. So far none have come to hand when lifted with a quarter twist.
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