As some of you will know from previous posts, Roche Fleurie is in a former meadow reverting to forest. Most of the trees that have volunteered in that meadow are apple trees. These trees all come from seeds scattered by wild animals eating apples. They hybridize on their own, and all are edible. But most are too tart to be eaten raw, although the majority are good cooking apples. In fact, out of the lot some turn out to be quite tasty even raw. Here are a few pictures of some of these apples and what we use them for.
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| Unnamed apple variety |
Decades ago this used to be an apple growing area. The soil and climate seem quite appropriate as most of the fruits are not much affected by worms or diseases, even if none of them are sprayed, pruned or taken care of.
Among some of the good-tasting apples are the White Transparent (or close relations), one of the very first apples to ripen. You cannot find it in stores here as it is extremely easy to bruise, and once the fruit is ripe it only keeps for a few days. These characteristics make the White Transparent impossible to ship or sell in commerce, but that does not make the fruit any less tasty. They make the best apple sauce. The sauce has a sharp taste, quite different from bought sauce.
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| White Transparent type of apples |
Some of these were picked at my friend Lucinda's who has a old farmhouse close by where several
White Transparent trees grow.
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| Apple sauce made with white transparent apples |
One of the few apple trees that were actually planted by us is a crab apple that makes very attractive big crabs. It also make large, beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, I have lost the name of the variety.
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| Unidentified crab apple - flower and fruit |
Given that these are so red, I thought I would use them to make the apple jelly. It turned out to be very attractive, very tasty but a failure. It did not gel (perhaps some of you might make some suggestions as to why it failed to gel). We have started using it as a fruit syrup. It is quite tasty and is the right consistency for a syrup.
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| Apple Jelly (Syrup?) |
Some of you might remember that this spring
I wrote a post about grafting apple trees and a couple of you wondered if the grafts took, what they would look like. The picture below shows two grafts pictured in my original post. The one on the left did not take and is dead, but the one on the right took and is already over two feet tall.
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| Dead graft (left) & graft that has taken (right) |
In after four or five years, the joint between the tree and the graft will hardly be noticeable. There will just be a swelling as in the picture below of a previous graft made some years back.
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| Old graft |
Oh, Alain, you have such tasty apples! I've never known than wild (from seed) apple trees could hybridize themselves. I'd like grafting too, I have some old apples trees and some young ones. I did but unsuccessful.
ReplyDeleteOut of 10 grafts I attempt, about 2 will work. You should keep on trying.
DeleteThis post makes me smile about the pleasant aspects of fall. As for jelling jelly, my never fail method, used since I learned it from my mother in my childhood, is SureJell. Pectin in a packet.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess that when I realized it had not gelled, I reboiled it with pectin from a packet but it made no difference!
DeleteThe apple-jelly-syrup is a beautiful jewel shade of red. Alain Appleseed.
ReplyDeleteand tasty, that is the main thing.
DeleteI love the look of your red apples against the blue sky. I have never even heard of white apples before. It must be fun to have your own apple seedlings turn up. I have grown some crab apples from seed and I can' t wait to see if they come true or whether I will have something different and unusual.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada, just about every old farm had at least one tree of White Transparent (also called Yellow Transparent or Harvest apples). Not only are they good, they ripen about 2 weeks before any other.
DeleteFunny your crabapple jelly didn't gel. Isn't pectin made from apples? One of life's little mysteries... But yeah, crabapple syrup on vanilla ice cream must be a delicious treat!
ReplyDeleteIt is a mystery but I am not very good at following recipes which might explain a lot!
DeleteHow amazing that you have an organic apple orchard created by nature! I love apples in all their forms. That sauce sounds wonderful. :o) My favorite way to eat apples is in pie.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite way to eat apples is also in pie (usually I succeed with those better than with gelly!).
DeleteI was so fascinated by your 'White Transparent' Alain, that I looked it up and according to Wikipedia it was a chance seedling found in Riga, Latvia in 1850 which was introduced to other parts of Europe and later the USA. It must be great to have a ready made natural orchard to crop from, especially as the trees have adapted to local conditions and the prevailing pathology.
ReplyDeleteActually many of these tress that have hybridized are not that tasty and the vast majority are cooking apples. These are a bit too tart to eat raw but they are very good cooked.
DeleteI do hope you find a way to get your Apple Jelly set in future Alain.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very mouth watering post - love those white apples, never heard of them before.
Actually, they are not well known now as most people are only aware of the eating apples available in stores. But in the past they were very popular and many trees of white transparent still exist.
DeleteWhat a wonderful thing - an orchard of self sown hybridised apples. May be with your grafting skills you will introduce a new variety.
ReplyDeleteThere are dozen of new varieties that have created themselves but as I was saying to Rick above, many are not that good. Because they grow on the property I am partial to many of them however - a bit like parents who have an ugly child and find him or her beautiful!
DeleteI love apples, crabapples, apple pie and crabapple jelly - something I remember my mother making when I was a child.I also love tart apples used in cooking.
ReplyDeleteHello Alain, those red apples have an amazing colour! So vibrant. When making jams and preserves from them, you can try playing with the levels of pectin to get the mix to set. If the jam is runny then there's not enough. I've not done it before but there should be lots of info out there.
ReplyDeleteI had a Transparent tree in one of my gardens and loved it for its early ripening. I made applesauce from it regularly.
ReplyDeleteJelly-making needs a combination of the right mix of sugar and acid and heat to gel properly. So tart apples work best. You need to get the temperature to 220F. I use a candy thermometer and it takes rather a longtime to get the right temperature. Good luck next time..