Joseph F. Radosevich

When we moved to Wisconsin, I told people that I wanted to pastor there long enough to eat from the apple trees in our yard. I meant it. I wanted to be there for 10 years. Events in the denomination outside my control forced me to resign and we had to move after just two ripe apples from one tree. Both trees became special to me though. We knew enough to plant what we liked to eat and that our trees needed to be compatible for pollination, so we ordered Honeycrisp and Pink Lady. A few weeks later, we found out that those trees were unavailable and that the orchard had replaced them with other trees. I knew that I didn't like the replacements, so I was forced to branch out and order trees I didn't know. I had to decide based on the catalog descriptions.  I landed on Suncrisp and Scarlet Crush. Suncrisp was the offspring of a famous but fickle apple called Cox's Orange Pippen that was meant to be more stable. It was the only tree we had that produced, and it became a favorite...

  "It is an apple like ours in Myrtle." "But you said it was magical," Benny said, biting into a golden piece. Mr. Wheeler chewed his bite and swallowed. "It is." Jack Zulu and the Waylander's Key S.D. Smith and J.C. Smith

Cosmic Crisp I've waited to try this apple for two years. The Washington State Apple Growers have done a great job marketing it, and that is why I've heard about it for two years. I know other people that have been looking forward to it as well. It finally came to a store in our area. I would describe it as the most appley apple ever. If you described the platonic ideal of an apple, you might say "red, round, crisp, juicy, sweet, tart, etc." Cosmic Crisp has all of those in a high degree. It is super juicy, very crisp like Honeycrisp, both sweet and slightly tart. My wife thought she noticed a lemonade flavor. I love it. It's not the greatest apple ever or my favorite (Sweet Sixteen and Mutsu take that prize) but it is still outstanding and well worth buying. It makes a great dessert just to eat it fresh. I love the red color. The ideal apple in my head is red, but few red apples taste very good. This one is great. Opal I picked these up today to try...

If you want to know what passes for excitement in my life: I've been waiting like a comic book fanboy for 2 years to try the new Cosmic Crisp apple. And it releases in stores next week! I went home the other to tell Emma and said, "you wouldn't believe what I found out today!" She rolled her eyes when she realized what I was so excited about. I heard about it a couple of years ago and have been reading about it and waiting ever since. You wouldn't believe how excited I am to try it.

On vacation in September, we did a taste-test one day of different newer varieties of apple. It was inspired by the ad at Meijer that promoted their apple harvest. I remember when Meijer did really big and cool apple displays. This looked no bigger than a normal display and without any variety I hadn't tried. We bought 3 apples anyway and tasted them against each other. Rave was my favorite. It was crunchy and juicy. It tasted like Apple Juice. Nothing spectacular in the taste department, but it was good. Sweetango is a daughter of Honeycrisp. It had a lot of crispness to it, but little flavor or sweetness. The main flavor was tart. I didn't care for the extreme crispness of it without anything besides tartness. Ambrosia was all texture and no flavor. I didn't care for it. Totally bland. I like my apples sweet, and Rave was the sweetest of the three. I much preferred Sweet Sixteen from the orchard up near Crivitz, WI.

I meant to review Ginger Gold and Zestar last week, but got busy with other posts. And I'm super glad because my review of Zestar changed with one more week to ripen. Ginger Gold: Tastes like apple, nothing special in that department. But it is super crisp, which is not normal for an apple that ripens in August and September. This is a good early season apple because there is nothing off-putting like the toughness of the skin or the mushiness of the inside. Rowen Jacobson says in Apples of Uncommon Character that Ginger Gold is named for the wife of the farmer who discovered/developed the apple, not because it has a ginger flavor. I don't taste any flavor at all. Zestar: Last week, this apple wasn't quite ripe. It was crisp and juicy, but nothing special. This week, it tastes like an Apple Juice Slushy. The flavor is not the special thing, but the texture is both crisp and juicy. I've eaten more than one Zestar today. I love this apple. We looked forward to this...

Yesterday, our local orchard opened for the first time this season. We go every Friday during apple season. We eat them fresh, my wife makes applesauce to preserve, and we enjoy them many ways. I'm going to review apples as we try them this season. I find that apple varieties can taste differently from season to season. One year, we loved Snowsweet, and then we couldn't stand them last year. So reviews will be fun. Paula Red: Slightly crisp and fresh. There is no distinct flavor, they just taste like basic apple. There is nothing wrong with that. But there is nothing amazing about it either. If you cut them and let them sit, they turn brown quickly and become mealy. This is best for fresh eating. Early Mac: Slightly tart. This one is softer than the Paula Red but has a nice tartness-- on the spectrum with Granny Smith. This pairs so well with caramel. This one is already soft and becomes mealy fast. I expect that they, like all early season apples, will not store well. ...