Apple review: Puritan

[redbird]

Puritan is an early season apple variety. cattitude bought a couple at the farmers' market, because we'd never heard of them. I googled a bit, and the usually useful orangepippin.com said "Red skinned apple covered with small white dots. Soft texture, tart flavored." They also inform me that it was developed by the Massachusetts Agricultural Extension Station.

They're right about the tart flavor and soft texture, but the ones we got are more green than red, and had no white dots. It's possible that they were underripe, which would explain the blandness. Cattitude's reaction was that he would try it again a year from now; mine was that I wouldn't bother. (Last week the market had Lodi and Vista Bella, both of which I already knew I don't like.)

We also bought some "J Mac" apples, which may or may not be the same as Jersey Mac ("J Mac apple" was completely useless as a search string, and adding "variety" still got me mostly computer references), and will try those next.

Comments

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Hmm, now I wish I'd paid more attention to which kinds of apples I bought. I skipped the J Macs because I don't like MacIntosh (too often mealy). Rose and I like tart apples, so I bought the pale yellow ones and the other red-and-green kind. She ate one on the way home, I haven't eaten any yet. At this season, I almost don't care -- it's so good to see fresh local apples, I just bury my nose in the box of them and breath in the first smell of fall.

The best, of course, is Macoun -- expect to see the first of those early-to-mid-September. But first, peaches! We've been eating the ones from Clarissa's tree, which aren't exciting, but Nicewicz Farm (the guy with the van diagonally across from Kimball's) always has great peaches. And prune plums! In a couple weeks it'll be time for my grandma's plum cake (http://42itous.livejournal.com/204349.html). Yum.

[redbird]

The pale yellow apples might have been Lodi (I didn't go to the market this week, but Cattitude and adrian_turtle both told me what they'd seen).

We are fond of Macouns; some years they're the best, and some years Macintosh or something else is. And I'm going to have to learn what grows around here, and what grows well around here. (Some varieties that are good when grown in the Hudson Valley are bland in Washington.)

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm not a huge fan of MacIntosh either, but I got a few of the J Macs because it's the beginning of apple season and I couldn't resist. (I didn't see anybody selling apples yesterday except Kimball's.) I was disappointed by the J Mac I ate yesterday. It seemed dry, and not especially crisp.

The pale yellow ones at Kimball's were almost certainly Lodi. Having tried one, I suspect they're mostly good for applesauce. The texture cries out to be cooked into mush.

Thank you for the pointer to good peaches! I had a few serious disappointments last year, from the Davis and Arlington markets.