Yesterday I attended a networking event in Balt’o. I decided to pair this with a follow-up visit to Scott’s and take advantage of his recent offer to taste some of his storage apples.
We opened his basement refrigerator to peep his stash of ciders, bagged apples, and home-brew experiments.
This year was among the rainiest in Maryland in recorded history (and may yet become the rainiest ever for some spots). It’s raining right now as I type this.
The dank conditions of 2018 made growing anything very difficult, and fungal disease was rampant.
Scott’s apples have their fair share of sooty blotch (cosmetic/ rubs off/ no big deal), but the apples are also suffering from higher susceptibility to bitter-pit and fungal rots.
Nevertheless, there were plenty of sound samples to be salvaged from the bunch after some cleaning in the wash basin.
The winner of last night’s beauty contest was this flawless Hoople Antique Gold. Eating as late as December, it retained good texture and a balanced flavor, which we enjoyed.
Probably the highlight of the visit was my first taste of Rubinette. This thing was delicious. The variety has a unique complex pleasing but subdued tanginess that we imagine must be the flavor associated with its venerated parent, Cox’s Orange Pippin. I grafted a stick of Rubinette from Scott into my orchard 2 years ago, but the fruit is routinely stolen by critters. No wonder the varmints want to eat it. Yum!
This is Clochard. This had a grapey vinious wine-like flavor, if I remember correctly.
Some of the apples we could not identify. We believe this to be Pomme Gris. It has a crisp texture with savory/ pear flavor components, and a coconutty aftertaste.
We sliced up a Hunge- an apple with a strongly pronounced nutty aftertaste that hits you late in the game.
We also knoshed on a Blenheim Orange that had a sour zippiness, and a Suncrisp, which I’ve tried before, and always tastes like pears to my palate.
We tried an Aromatic Pippin, which was delicious. It has soft fine-grained flesh redeemed with a unique pleasing twangy flavor I cannot explain.
We also had a Crispin - always a solid apple - and a Spigold (sweet Honeycrisp lite-like flavor) as well as a Wagoner were somewhere in the mix.
The following photos: I cannot remember the apples to which these correspond.
Lots of new tastes for me, each of which constitute a rare and special privilege. Scott is very nice for putting up with me.