Grimes Golden is the perfect apple here -- a friend of mine in grade
school had one in their yard that was more or less completely
unpruned and produced huge amounts of very large, wonderful apples
every year with no "user intervention" other than picking them.
Pretty much gone now, they bloom and ripen over an extended period
and hence the orchards don't grow them. Too expensive.
Grimes is my favorite, or one of my favorites. It was also the
favorite of both of my grandmothers. My mom told of drying slices
of Grimes on a tin roof for preservation. You are right, they ripen
over a long period and need to be picked multiple times. They also
drop easily. However it is the best tasting apple, along with a
really ripe original Stark's Golden Delicious, the original Jonagold
(not sure who owns the patent on that) and Macintosh. I have even
grown to like Jonathan. Grimes makes great cider, provided the
apples are not too soft or too green. Too soft, and they mush and
the juice won't come out. Too green and the juice tastes and smells
skunky. Jonagold is often called a cross between golden delicious
and Jonathan, but it is not. The original Jonagold is a cross
between Jonathan and Grimes Golden, and it is evident by comparing
the blossom end of a Grimes and a Jonagold. Newer cultivars may well
be crosses of the parents or Jonagold and Golden Del, because I see
some stuff sold as Jonagold that is long and pointy, nothing like the
original Jonagold.
The original Jonagold loses some of the negatives of the parents and
retains the good qualities. It is better in my opinion, than either
parent.
Stark's Nursury (Stark Brothers at the time) owns/owned the original
Hawkeye and renamed it Delicious. Later (in the 1920s) they acquired
the original Golden Delicious (they named it too) and marketed it.
By the 1930s, starks had a bud sport that was more colorful than the
original, and they named it Starking Double Red Delicious. Other bud
sports from there were selected because they were more elongated and
more red. The Starking still had good flavor.
The cultivars grown in WA are mostly from Hilltop, who have no rights
to the genetics of the originals AFIK. What happens is the competing
nursery grows the patent tree until they find a bud sport that has
properties they desire. Then they propagate that and market it under
their patent. It is genetically different. But the competing
nurseries like to use the name of the original. Thus by now there
are hundreds (maybe thousands if you count the unmarketed ones
developed by nurseries) of cultivars of "Red Delicious, but none of
them are "Delicious" by name or taste.
In general varieties you will see in the store are flavorless. The
exceptions are Macintosh and some Jonagold. There may be other
varieties available in the East that are good too, but I am talking
nationwide distribution. Another exception is NZ apples, but I
bought some NZ braeburn and they were dry and flavorless, so I
believe the WA cultivars have hit NZ too. I know they dropped the
Hawkeye Delicious long ago. They were only shipped a few years in
the 80s. The original NZ braburn was a great apple too.
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