Cox's Orange Pippin

Perhaps you have never heard of or seen this apple: Cox's Orange Pippin. TPP just finished eating one, the first in a great many years and it did not disappoint. The orange pippin is simply one great tasting apple, a wonderful, juicy, sweet-tart flavor with a bit of citrus, a hint of banana and other fruity undertones. This apple sets a standard against which the taste of other apples is judged. This is a heritage variety that originated in the UK and introduced in 1825. Now it is seldom grown except by apple affectionados, so it was quite a surprise to find a bin of them in a supermarket in northern Washington state. They are not a particularly showy apple, at first mostly greenish with a streaky reddish blush and of medium size. As the ripen the green becomes yellow and reddish blush develops to produce an orangy-red color. TPP just read that something like 90% of agricultural biodiversity has been lost in the last 100 years. According to the Apples of New York (1905) 1600 varieties of apple were being grown at the time. Wonder how many varieties are commercially grown now? Wonder how many of those varieties have ceased to exist? Do you think 160 varieties are being grown there now? At least Cox's Orange Pippen has survived and you can buy the trees from many  nurseries. This image came from Van Meuwen's nursery.

Apple biodiversity - so much and so few

TPP recently blogged about apples, a favorite topic.  After all he owns the two volume Apples of New York (1905) the definitive reference about heritage apple varieties.  At the time that was written over 1600 varieties of apple were grown in NY state.   TPP grew up not far from Geneva NY, the home of apple biodiversity.  Today "90 percent of the apples sold within the U.S. are from only 11 varieties, including McIntosh, Rome, Fuji and Red Delicious."  Go here to read more.  This is quite sad because many people just don't know what they are missing.  Yesterday, TPP cut up a Northern Spy, a long-time favorite, and when you take a bite you understand why you must go out of your way to get these apples.  The complexity of flavor in this apple is just superior; it makes a Red Delicious seem like plain white bread with the crusts cut off, a kid's apple.  Hey, TPP loved McIntosh as a kid, but you grow up, or not.  So how does someone as young as Layla Eplett (the author of the Sci Amer piece) come to appreciate heritage apples?  Why she sounds interesting! 
HT to Agricultural Biodiversity blog.

Apples

The Phactors took an excursion yesterday to the Wolfe orchard just east of Monticello IL.  Since this is just a "hobby" orchard they only have 350 trees and about 66 varieties of apple for sale, 33 were available yesterday.  And most importantly, one of those varieties was northern spy, our favorite apple, so we bought half a bushel.  This variety originated as a seedling around 200 years ago just about 50 miles west of where TPP grew up in upstate NY.  A few new varieties were on hand.  One was Kandil Senap (image), a variety of Turkish origin with Orange Pippin parentage.  It's a very oval apple, quite crisp, but a bit dry.  Among the heritage varieties are Baldwin, spitzenberg (probably a parent of Johnathon), golden russet, Ben Davis (no harder, drier apple exists, but it stores well), smoke house (tart), and winter banana (a pale yellow apple that will taste better after some storage).  They also have a variety called buff from a relative's farm in western North Carolina, a big apple with a crisp white and juicy flesh; it performs well for making pies.  Here's the best thing: they'll let you taste every apple they've got.  Wonderful!

Heritage apples

TPP wishes he'd thought of titling an article about heritage apples, Core Values.  This link shows some great old color illustrations and some nice notes about some famous varieties of apples, and TPP knew their source immediately, The Apples of New York (2 vol. 1905).  As an apple fancier TPP owns an excellent condition copy of these books that one of my best friends found in a used book store for $10 some 25 years ago and gave me for a birthday present.  What friends!  A facsimile version (sniff) now sells for $35-65 whereas the real thing sells for well upwards of $300, if you can find a copy.  This is the primary reference for heritage apple varieties grown in the USA and at the time of this publication over 1600 varieties of apple were being grown in New York state.  Wow!  Loss of this genetic heritage is a problem, and far fewer varieties are grown now.  A few people still try to maintain some of these varieties, e.g., the Tree-mendus Fruit farm in sw Michigan grows over 200 varieties of apple.  TPP had a great time discussing and tasting varieties with a patriarch of this family farm, and that included the Delicious, the apple that they ruined to breed the Red Delicious.