Apple Review: Esopus Spitzenburg

[redbird]

Esopus Spitzenburg is an old apple variety--if they were tomatoes they'd be labeled heirloom.

We (that's cattitude and I) just shared one. These are good: crisp, tart, and juicy. There are times I will want a sweeter apple; part of what Cattitude likes is that they aren't as sweet as many. If I could get these regularly, I wouldn't need Granny Smith: I think they're tart enough for cooking.

If you care about appearances, they're red (with a bit of yellow, not the deep solid red of a Red Delicious, but redder than a Gala), almost round, and fairly large, though most apples of commerce these days are fairly large.

I am not prepared to go as far as Thomas Jefferson, whose favorite apple these were, but I like it. As Cattitude said, not so thrilled that he'll rush down to Isham Street and get more right now (he got two, on spec), but we'll get more at next Saturday's Greenmarket.

[Cattitude also bought some more of the NY652s, the apple whose number I misremembered in the previous review.]

Comments

[janetl.livejournal.com]

I generally like anything at the farmer's market that isn't a name I recognize from the grocery store. That may just be that they are so fresh.

[redbird]

We also get very good mcintosh and galas at the greenmarket: I think it's the freshness. Last fall we ate a lot of Macouns: many years, there is one variety that is particularly good, and it's not the same from year to year. I assume this is because of slight differences in how different kinds of apple, even in the same orchard, respond to different amounts of rain, sunlight, temperature, etc.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Aren't they called heirloom apples as well?

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

OMG! where did you find them? which farmer's market? [ETA: huh. Inwood of course. I wonder if they have 'em down at Union Square as well?]

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

I didn't see any apples that excited me at my greenmarket today (Sunnyside). Does NY652 have a descriptive name?

[redbird]

I don't think so. A quick look around found an entry for it only in a list of "antique apple" varieties from an orchard in Michigan that has not yet gotten the web site entirely functional: clicking on variety names tries to start a Java applet, which does nothing.

I had assumed it was something new out of the Corness cooperative extension; I now am guessing it just never caught on.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Ahh! New York (both upstate/appleknocker territory and the City)! Of course I'm delighted that the Boutique Orchards (mostly in UpState New York) that started specializing in Heirloom Apple Varieties a few decades ago are now coming into full production, but I'm guessing that NYC-dwellers are their major market. It's possible that a few stores here in the Los Angeles Area (probably in Beverly Hills and San Marino) sometimes have some of those varieties (perhaps priced by the ounce), but that's not of much use to me, so I envy you New Yorkers who have better Sources. It's good that some of the old cultivars have been preserved, but sad that so many have been, either totally or in effect, lost.

It's been seventy years since I had the pleasure of eating Rambo apples -- from the then-abandoned orchard, planted from stock provided by "Johnny Appleseed", at the corner of Rambo Lane (where we lived, before losing the house during the (previous) Great Depression) and the main road from Toledo to Sylvania, Ohio, and -- to be perfectly honest -- I really don't have a clear memory of their taste, other than that, to a 10-year-old, they were Good, but I really do want (and hope) to try them at least once more.

Sometimes I almost regret donating my copy (the second edition, I think) of Sir John Evelyn's "Pomona" to the L.A. Country Arboretum Library, and I think I'll go now to check and see if it's on Project Gutenberg, in the hope of reveling in the names & descriptions of the many apple varieties grown in England during the era of Elizabeth the First.