Comments on: Not the world’s first red apple

By: nigel deacon

nigel deacon — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:29:35 +0000

i’ve grown some of these varieties. many have flesh which is tart and rather doughy.

however a few are good ……. hidden rose, weirouge and mott’s pink are good-flavoured, sweet and not too tart; pink pearmain is good when freshly picked; almata is ok straight off the tree; so is scarlet surprise. burford’s redflesh is poor; bitter and astringent; no-one can eat a whole one. devonshire quarrenden and discovery can be red fleshed in dull years – and there’s red devil, bred in the 70s by hugh ermen. these three all have good flavour; devonshire quarrenden probably the best. hall’s pink has a beautiful appearance, flavour and crispness when fresh.

there are lots of un-named red fleshed seedlings around if you look for them – flavours range from tasteless to average to very good. there are also old redfleshed trees in ancient orchards – take these to an apple identification day and the expert usually looks blank. the names of these seem to be lost.

some of the trees can be recognised by their leaves which have a red cast to them.

hidden rose is densely fleshed and keeps quite well – sometimes until late jan / early feb. most of the others mentioned above do not store for more than a week or two.

By: meristemi

meristemi — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:43:25 +0000

And what about “pera cocomerina”, the red fleshed pear that is still cultivated in some farms of the Appenines, close to the source of the Tiber river? And what about the pink iranian apple cultivated near Bakran since a very long time?

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:59:04 +0000

I don’t object to calling them “new”. I object to calling them “world’s first”.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:52:21 +0000

Did I miss where they said it wouldn’t brown? You can ignore all the nonsense about red apple pies …

By: Felix Cooper

Felix Cooper — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:27:47 +0000

Marketing groups and the press have much the same relationship with one another as politicians do.
Still these two apple varieties could actually be improvements over those that have already been propagated over the last several hundred years or more. I’ve eaten over a dozen red fleshed cultivars and the texture is lacking in all (the crispness is what is missing most often) and the flavors all lean toward the tart spectrum. Not a bad thing to some but the mass apple consumers like sweet based on looking at most in the grocery. Besides the fruit quality, they tend to carry cultural baggage for the fruit grower (hyper susceptible to diseases, real late ripening, poor storage ect). The fact that so many have never heard of red fleshed apples is because they haven’t been good enough to make it to the stores OR no one has successfully marketed them. Remember these are NEW variety introductions so it is not off base to call them new. I hope they are indeed an improvement as the health benefits of the increased antioxidant levels is a plus. Has anyone actually eaten either of these cultivars?

By: Anastasia

Anastasia — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:52:56 +0000

I wish there was more info available about what genes were changed, nutritional qualities, etc. I am particularly intrigued to know what changes allow it to not brown. So little science

By: Ewa @ Ewa in the Garden

Ewa @ Ewa in the Garden — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:20:20 +0000

this is something unbelievable – lack of time? ignorance? or lazyness?
good at least that somebody spotted the mistake