Here are some interesting fall apples to look for in the grocery store this season!
1. ALBEMARLE PIPPIN – This NYC native became a favorite of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It has a lemon and pineapple flavor that provides pizzazz in a new wave of Champagne-like ciders.
2. YATES – These guys can take heat and humidity and so it has become a standard on farms throughout the southern states. It is sweet and tart with a spicy twang. Great for a small snack!
3. GRIMES GOLDEN – Super-sweet with high sugar content and blasts of banana and anise flavors. Favorite of moonshiners and children! The first Golden Delicious tree sprang from a Grimes Golden seed.
4. YORK IMPERIAL – A slightly lopsided juicy and sweet apple that melts into a fluffy sauce when cooked. Found mostly in Maryland and Virginia markets every Thanksgiving.
5. MAIDEN’S BLUSH – This little guy has cheerful pink cheeks that make it easy to sell in the supermarket. Its low-juice flesh made it the top choice for dried apples – a 19th century staple.
6. ARKANSAS BLACK – This apple is famed for its staying power in the root cellar, where its tart and tannic bite mellowed into delightful flavors reminiscent of a glass of iced tea sweetened with orange-blossom honey. Yum!!
7. GOLDEN DELICIOUS – Second most successful apple of all time after the “Red Delicious.” The supermarket version is a little bland, but the honeyed aromas of a tree ripened on from a Southern farm capture the very essence of apple.
8. WINESAP – Was very popular before the rise of the ‘Red Delicious.’ It is tart and foxy and equally gifted for fresh eating or in pies and cider.
9. BEN DAVIS – This apple was very hard to dry and therefore survived months at sea ages ago! The “mortgage lifter” saved countless antebellum farms, which sent barges down the Mississippi to New Orleans and on to Europe. Amazing little guy!
10. HEWS CRAB – Pink and yellow in color, they are too sour for eating out of hand, but they make the best tasting cider. This apple is now being rediscovered especially in the South.
Article taken from Sept. 2014 issue of Southern Living
