Melrose Apple
The Melrose apple has large fruit, with a yellowish green skin flushed and streaked dark red with russet spots. It has firm, coarse, juicy, creamy, white flesh with a slightly acid flavor. Very good cooking and dessert qualities. Best after Christmas when it develops its fruity aroma. Developed by Freeman Howlett at the Ohio AES in 1944, the Melrose apple is the official state apple of Ohio. Its late harvest time makes this a good storing apple and is meant as a modern (at the time) dessert apple. It is a cross between the Red (Stark) Delicious and Jonathan apples. The tree yields apples of dull copper red skin, which are firm, very juicy, and slightly tart. Its slightly pentagonal shape is evident when looking at the apple from above. The flesh is firm and crisp with an excellent flavor and high-quality fruit for dessert and cooking. One of the best keepers of all time, whose flavor improves in storage, Melrose reaches peak quality after 2-3 months. It ripens in late October.
Alkemene Apple
Alkmene was raised in Germany in the 1930s. It is sometimes also known as Early Windsor. The flavor is quite strong and has the Cox tanginess but is noticeably juicier. Some tasters have compared the flavor to a Granny Smith. The flesh is cream-colored and quite dense; biting into one of these gives teeth and gums a good workout. It ripens a bit earlier than Cox – around early September. It has much more strength and body than most early varieties. If you like a strong, tart apple, early in the season, then give this a try. Alkmene was developed from a cross between Cox’s Orange Pippin apples and Duchess of Oldenburg.
Kindal Sinap Apple
An ancient, exotic, very unusual elongated dessert apple from Turkey. Kandil Sinap is an ancient apple that grows on a vigorous, distinctively pyriform (narrow, upright, and pyramidal, like a pear tree) tree that will require careful training. It needs to be thinned well and early to prevent biennialism, and it is recommended that this tree be planted in a sheltered location to avoid premature drop caused by wind. Kandil Sinap is fireblight resistant.
Kandil Sinap is about as exotic as it gets. Named after the Sinop Region in Turkey, the apple is bizarrely elongated with a beautiful, pale golden skin that is splashed red. While its strange appearance is definitely a conversation starter, the flavor is actually excellent. The crisp, white flesh is sweet, perfumed, and slightly vinous. If you want a delicious apple that stands out from the crowd, this is your tree. These apples will store for over three months, though they should be handled carefully to avoid bruising. The Sinop region is a small peninsula on the southern shore of the Black Sea.
Spartan Apple
Spartan is a small to medium size, sweet apple, and a great favorite with children. It is very disease resistant and a reliable bearer in our area. It is very much a “McIntosh” style apple, bright crimson skin and whiter-than-white flesh. It is best to leave the fruit on the tree as long as possible, until they are crimson all over, as this allows the flavor to develop. Straight from the tree, the flesh is very crisp and juicy, but it softens a bit within a week or so of picking – although remaining juicy. This is also a good variety for juicing – the juice color is not especially remarkable, but the flavor is sweet and pleasant. Spartan is an excellent garden apple, being easy to grow, resistant to scab, fairly resistant to mildew, and it crops very reliably – and by growing your own you can enjoy Spartan at its best, straight from the tree. However, it can be prone to canker in wetter regions. Spartan is a historically interesting apple, being an early example of a variety developed in a formal scientific breeding program in Canada. It was raised at the Canadian Apple Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia, in the 1920s, and the mother variety is McIntosh (of course). There is some uncertainty over the pollen parent, it is usually thought to be Newtown Pippin.
Pristine Apple
Pristine apples were created by the PRI Disease Resistant Apple Breeding Program, which is a joint breeding venture between the University of Illinois, Rutgers, and Purdue University. Pristine apples are round to oblate in shape and of average size. The semi-thick skin is smooth, waxy, glossy, and green yellow, ripening to a bright yellow when mature, and is sometimes spotted with faint, red-orange blush. Underneath the surface, the flesh is crisp, dense, pale yellow to ivory, and fine-grained, encasing a central core filled with a few black-brown seeds. Pristine apples have a balanced, sweet-tart flavor with light astringent notes of spice, banana, and green apple. It is a very heavy bearer and ripens here in early August/
Ashmead’s Kernel Apple
A green russeted apple, originating in the 1700s. Ashmead’s Kernel is lumpy, misshapen, and small to medium size. . The underlying bright green skin is entirely covered in russet. Ashmead’s Kernel has remained popular for well over 2 centuries, and with good reason: it has a distinctive flavor which is quite different from most other varieties. It is perhaps no surprise that Ashmead’s Kernel does not seem to be related to any of the mainstream apple varieties, although one of its probable cousins – Duke of Devonshire – is also quite well known. The name “kernel” suggests that this variety was discovered as a chance seedling. Ashmead’s Kernel is a versatile apple, not just for eating fresh, it can also be used for salads and cooking, and it is a highly valued apple for juicing and hard cider. Ashmead’s is the most popular variety with organic growers in England. It is somewhat disease resistant, and a flavorful, reliable producer. It ripens in mid October.
