Opal Apples

[Intriguedbybonsai]

I saw these in the organic fruit section of my grocery store, and decided to give them a try. Wow, they are very good. They are golden yellow with just blush of orange. Very crunchy, sweet, with just a bit of tartness. I think the Honeycrisp variety has met it's match.

Anyone else try Opal apples?

Or better yet, what is your favorite apple?

[OROZCONLECHE]

Ive actually love some Huge red ones that have lots of red veins inside, I'm not sure the name of it but by far it was the juiciest and biggest flavoring apple I ever Had, after that I have never seen it again, but as of now ive been crazy for this apples that are about the size of a big cherry, so this apples are pretty small when they are ripped, I saved the seeds to try and grow a long term Tree but no luck on those seeds.

[JONA878]

Opal...raised in 1936 by W.C.Seabrook in Chelmsford Essex.

Worcester Pearmain X Rival.

Although a lovely apple it never took off over here and is not widely planted.
I guess the problem is that it is a fairly early apple and there are quite a few good croppers in competition with it.


As too best apple..I still think that Egremont Russet takes a whole lot of beating.....especially with a good lump of strong cheese and a pint of bitter. gg.

[JONA878]

Hi Oro..........
As to that red veined apple. Try looking up Red Devil.

With those seed you are trying to grow from that small apple. don't forget that any seeds you succeed in growing will not be the same as the apple they came from.
It will have been pollinated by another apple tree and therefore be a cross- bred fruit. you only know one parent....the tree the fruit came from.

To breed true to variaty you have to grow from either a scion cut from the parent tree or from a vegative bud.

[DoubleDogFarm]

As too best apple..I still think that Egremont Russet takes a whole lot of beating.....especially with a good lump of strong cheese and a pint of bitter. gg.

When someone suggest a favorite fruiting tree, I like to do a little research. Should this recommendation be added to my forest garden list.

I found this through Google.

My local garden centre sells eight varieties: Golden Delicious, Jona Gold, Cox's Orange Pippin, Bramley, Starking, Laxton's Superb, Egremont Russet and Fiesta. A couple of these are worth eating, but most are commercial breeds sold by the superstores. They have been selected above all for one characteristic: that they can be picked when unripe (so they bruise less easily) and still look good on the shelf. The fact that they taste of Kleenex soaked in Diet Coke is neither here nor there.

The biggest con is the Egremont Russet. In an article for the Guardian last year, Paul Waddington urged us to turn our backs on supermarket apples "and bite into a ripe Egremont Russet". But the Egremont is also a supermarket apple, chosen for the inestimable quality that it can be bounced against a wall and still be fit for sale. The supermarkets have persuaded us that because it is neither red nor shiny, it must be a "connoisseur's variety". It is slightly more interesting than a Golden Delicious, though not when it has been picked a month before ripening and stored for a year in carbon dioxide. But even when perfectly ripe, it doesn't touch some of the neglected varieties.

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/16/food.foodanddrink

George Joshua Richard Monbiot (born 27 January 1963)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monbiot

Eric

[OROZCONLECHE]

Jona! I think You have found my long lost apple x) but to find it at the store is gana be almost imposible, and I know that if I grow out of seed at most it wont be, but thats its the only apple seeds I will like to experiment with, and thanks for the Info.

[JONA878]

Hi Eric.

Re that article....
Guess it's all a matter of taste after all....but of all the apple growers I know most would agree that the Egremont when it is tree ripened has a superb nutty flavour that has few equals.
It is not an apple that youngsters seem to like though as it is not a 'sweet ' apple. The skin can be tough and the flesh slightly dry...but I still personaly think that of all the many hundreds of apples I have tasted over many years it takes some beating.

As to the term ' Connoisseur apple ' that has been banded about over here for quite a few years now and seems to refer to any apple that has fallen out of favour with the markets.
The supermarkets have indeed been responsible for many of these fruits being lost to the general public.
They have only limited room on their shelves for apples and have only stocked a very limited range of varieties as for a long time they adopted the attitude that ...an apple is an apple is an apple.
With the need for long runs on a particular fruit they could not or would not entertain the promotion of a niche variety.
Thank goodness some of them have, ( through garden programmes and media writtings and farmers markets etc.) started to sell more of these rarer vars.
On apple identification stalls on apple fair days over here we are seeing
many of these old vars turning up from peoples gardens and it's good to see more and more folk are planting these old beauties.
I recommend anyone planting an apple tree to plant something that you cannot buy in the store......bring back flavour to the fruit bowl.

Here endeth the sermon...gg.

[DeborahL]

OROZCONLECHE, I NEVER would have remembered that wonderful huge apple with red veins inside ! That was my favorite apple when I was a kid.
I wish I could buy those again.

[OROZCONLECHE]

Yea great stuff ama do a reaserch on store to store to find it

[Intriguedbybonsai]

As too best apple..I still think that Egremont Russet takes a whole lot of beating.....especially with a good lump of strong cheese and a pint of bitter. gg.

I just googled that apple, and it appears to be a popular variety in the UK. By the looks of it, I don't believe it would sell very well here in the US. I can't speak for everyone, but it seems as though most people here like fruit that is pretty, shiny, and colorful. I would love to get my hands on that apple. I've always been about trying new fruits.
Now if they could exclude one apple variety here, it would be Red Delicious. Mushy and mealy all the way through.

[!potatoes!]

^ most of the russetted apples I've tried are excellent. let the average consumer have their red delicious.

[DeborahL]

OCL, if you find it I hope you'll let me know !

[JONA878]

Just to confuse things a little....
I found this site as regarding red fleshed apples.
I was not happy with my suggestion of Red Devil as it is quite a modern apple and I think OCL's request was for an apple from quite a long time ago.
Look at the bit about apples from the California area...seems there was a few red fleshed bred there that might also fit the bill.


https://www.suttonelms.org.uk/apple43.html

[DeborahL]

I didn't see the one I had as a child. The flesh was white with a few red veins. The apple itself was large, round and red. I don't think it was tart because I wouldn't have liked it.

[DeborahL]

GUESS WHAT ! I found the apple ! The only embarrassing thing is, it's been around all the time, I just was always buying the same old Washington Delicious and Golden Delicious and never really looking.
The large, red, red-veined apple is a ROMA. I thought it looked like the one I loved as a child so I bought one. This is the apple !

[!potatoes!]

rome? pretty sure there are beans and tomatoes referred to as 'roma', but I haven't heard of such an apple.

[Intriguedbybonsai]

She probably meant "Rome". I don't care for them myself. They aren't crisp, or crunchy to my likings.

[JONA878]

They are classed as a culinary apple...Full name Rome Beauty, but there at least are eight 'sports ' of the variety.
Came from a rootstock shoot from the grafted tree of a Joel Gillet, Proctorville, Ohio around 1816.
Was tried over here in the Uk but our summer is not warm enough for it to get good colour or ripen well.
Listed as still grown widely in the States..but mainly for processing.
Also grown in Italy, australia and New Zealand.

[DeborahL]

Yes, it's ROME, not ROMA.
I love it !
How weird that it's been there all along. No more "habit shopping" !