Our apple taste tests

[Lodidian]

Last Saturday (October 12), we had another, much smaller gathering at the farm. Apples in the taste test were Colonel’s Kernal, Dyer, Haralson, Holstein, Red Canada, Rubinette, Smokehouse, Spigold, Tolman Sweet, and Westfield Seek No Further. Too few participants completed the rating sheets for me to list numbers, but there was a lively discussion about the varieties.

Rubinette was everyone’s favorite. I was tasting it for the first time, too. I had saved it out after picking because we only one apple – the first and only from our tree planted in 2022. Full of excellent flavor.

Colonel’s Kernel might be called the second favorite, since it was the most commented on. Because it was such pleasant eating, folks were surprised that Colonel’s Kernel was another tree from our woods where there once was an orchard. It seems almost certainly to be a named variety, but I’ve not been able to identify it. The fruits are very large, have an often dull red over yellow, have a nicely balanced flavor on the sweet side, and are crisp without a hard crunch. In other words, it is like many popular varieties from an earlier era. Its name is an homage to my wife and her father, who was a colonel.

Dyer, Westfield, and Spigold were also especially liked.

Smokehouse had its advocates, but high praise wasn’t universal.

No one had much to say about Red Canada or Haralson, but they were generally liked.

Tolman got similar reactions as it has gotten before. Sweet but otherwise of little flavor.

The Holstein was a spitter. I’m a slow learner, since our Holsteins have never tasted right. I’m finally more than suspecting that I was not sent the right tree when I bought it from South Meadow – a nursery not recommended for a variety of reasons. Something like confirmation came this year when two Tompkins King trees we got from there at the same time finally bore for the first time. They both bore yellow apples that look nothing like the fruits from our Tompkins King that died or are grown by Kingtown Orchard, an old enterprise that is just outside of Tompkins County.

[MikeC]

The Dyer apple seems to get really good reviews from the different taste testings. Where did you get your Dyer apple tree from? It may be one I could add to my orchard. I have to remove a couple of trees next spring. The ones that are just not producing enough fruit.

[Lodidian]

I got our Dyer from Southmeadow Fruit Gardens in 2015. Unfortunately, as is noted in Growing Fruit’s nurseries list, they “are no longer a reliable source.”

[alan]

The only apples you listed that I’m familiar with being touted as a world class eating apples are Rubinette and Spigold. I still don’t know why Smokehouse was a prized apple, I’m guessing for another use besides fresh eating. Tolman and Westfield are not apples I’ve seen top taste tests although they are still relatively popular heirlooms.

Rubinette was the only commercial and relatively modern apple in your tests with the partial exception of Spigold, so it doesn’t surprise me that it pleased the palates of your customers. They are already used to eating apples with similar qualities. Sharper tasting apples are not something most people are used to.

For the commercial small grower the only taste test that matters is what sells. Years ago, I was on a NAFEX tour in Massachusettes, and the grower of a small pick-your-own orchard said he had to fence off the Honeycrisps until they reached peak flavor- otherwise his customers would pick them clean way before they were ready.

Spigold and N. Spy are both difficult for me to grow in my orchard- they tend to get rots on my vigorously growing trees, Spy has also been a problem at another site I used to manage for the same reason but at others it does fine.

[Lodidian]

One of the main goals with our taste tests has been to introduce folks to apples they might never have heard of. Another is to demonstrate the diversity of flavors, textures, colors, shapes, and sizes of apples.

Over the years, some of the heirloom varieties have done quite well in our tests. Westfield has finished quite high some years. Smokehouse has been a winner. A few weeks ago, we included Smokehouse among the apples we brought to market. We offered slices of all the varieties we were selling, and we sold more of them than any other.

A hundred years ago, my grandfather limited the number of Northern Spy trees he grew, also complaining of how difficult they were to grow. So some things don’t change.

[alan]

You are a zone colder than me. One thing I believe about heirlooms is that they vary a great deal depending on climate and soil type. When someone or an organization pays to patent a variety, one that often costs many thousands of dollars to produce in the first place, not only must it appeal to the widest range of consumers, but also have a relatively standard fruit quality in the various places apples are grown commercially, along with being reliably productive in a wide range of climates and soils. Thus, the international success of Gala. .

Smokehouse ripens here when it is still warm, and it is soft without any particular distinction I can think of. However, I don’t grow it in my own orchard and only offer it as a nursery tree so my experience with it is somewhat limited, but I find its growth habit challenging.

For taste tests to be valid, you should only identify an apple by number. Is that how you do it? Let the tester decide if the apple is unusual or not.

[Lodidian]

Ah, there’s the rub. Our aim is entertainment and education. Validity has been sacrificed. Apples are set out on a table and labeled with name and place and date of origin. Folks can visit at their leisure, so they wouldn’t necessarily be around for the reveal of what variety each number was.

[alan]

I was at a NAFEX meeting in Santa Cruz years ago which was combined with CA rare fruit growers. There was a huge taste test and very many varieties picked from different places and different times. I don’t think they identified the varieties, but I don’t think the results were especially informative anyway. There is a huge range year to year site to site and even on the same tree I often find a great range of quality from the same variety. I think a poll of serious apple growers naming their top 10 varieties might be more informative. Especially if it was done regionally.