Quite a few years ago I bought about 3 Erwin Baur apples from Cummins. However they aren’t all the same variety. The one that ended up in my own orchard ripens early and I picked the last 3 apples today. I let most of them drop off the tree, which they do while they are still quite firm. It’s hard for an apple to get my attention in August.
This must have been a very good season for this apple because the two we’ve eaten were wonderful and very different from any variety I’ve had before. The flesh is very dense and it’s crunchy with a sprite and aromatic apple taste- essence of apple. It isn’t high brix, coming in at only 12-13- I would have guessed 15 because of it’s nice sugar acid balance. I usually don’t care for such low brix apples.
Here’s the mystery- another tree from the batch of 3 ripens in Oct and that’s about when Erwin should ripen here according to descriptions. The apples look very similar, but I really can’t remember what the other one tastes like- I only ate one apple from it before installing it in an orchard I no longer manage. I don’t think the flesh was as dense, because that’s something I tend to notice.
This is the only apple I’ve ever tasted with very dense flesh that ripens in Aug. Usually such apples are late.
Maybe it’s a misID’d tree- I’ll probably never know what it is. But it’s a nice apple to have some of in late Aug. I find it more refreshing than Ginger Gold, Sansa or Zestar, the other 3 high quality apples I have here now.