I want you all to know right now that I am an apple fanatic.  For the past year I have been obsessing about the Roxbury Russet apple . . .

The Roxbury Russet is the oldest named and cultivated variety of apple in North America.  It was a chance seedling that grew up in a barnyard in Roxbury, Massachusetts sometime before 1650.  It was prized during the colonial period for it’s high sugar content (which made it a great cider apple), tart taste (good for baking) and for its great keeping ability (important in the days before refridgeration).  This apple was so good that Thomas Jefferson devoted space in his Monticello Orchard for these trees.

 

So I recently made an apple pilgrimage about 2 and a half hours out into western Massachusetts to Cold Spring Orchard in Belchertown, MA.  CSO is an experimental orchard run by the University of Massachusetts Agricultural Extension School.  It was love at first bite.    I had to do a little bit of wheeling and dealing to get this apple as they technically weren’t “ready” yet and so this one is from the private stash of someone at the farm.  I can only say thank you to the person who made this possible!  It really was an amazing apple.  Crisp, tart and refreshing.  I learned that this variety has, in fact, twice the amount of sugar of a Fuji apple, but the acid in the apple balances it so nicely that it’s not a sweet tasting apple at all.  I’m told that if you were to make a single variety cider out of it (ugh! If only equipment were less expensive) you’d not only have a traditional New England Colonial apple cider, you’d also have some very STRONG cider!  Someday maybe . . .

 

The Orchard is a beautiful place located in the Holyoke Mountain Range and it looks right out over the Pioneer Valley.  Myself and my much better half wandered the orchard for 2 hours tasting many of the over 100 varieties of apples and drinking in the views.  I highly suggest that if you can go there, you do!  Plus, any money you spend goes into the orchard so that they can study new techniques for orchardists and you will be supporting local farmers.

 

This got me started on a quest to try as many heriloom apple varieties as I could find and as luck would have it, there are orchards out there that specialize in growing heirloom apple varieties.  I was lucky enough to come upon a flyer for an heriloom apple tasting with the orchardist from Scott Farm in Dummerston, VT, Zeke Goodband, who has been collecting and growing heirloom apples for over 30 years.  He arranged an apple tasting with 20 varieties of heirloom apples.  Included in the tasting were the Black Oxford, Cox's Orange Pippin, the Lady or Christmas apple (an apple grown since Roman times), the Reine de Reinette and the Newtown Pippin.  By the time I was done I had been inspired to create an Heirloom Apple Cyser.

 

And there you have it.  I have been changed by my apple experience.  After having tasted so many different and delicious apple varieties, I will never look at a Red Delicious apple the same way again.  An obsession with apples, combined with a new obsession with brewing equals what I can only hope will be a delicious result!

 

Evolve!