Devoted followers of Honeycrisp are coming to the markets and if we’ve been asked once, we’ve been asked at least a hundred times at each market about the availability of this apple. Glad to say, “yes, we do have Honeycrisp.” Although, this apple variety is challenging to produce, our Honeycrisp apples are really “strutting their stuff” at this point in harvest. Honeycrisp has become one of our best selling apples.
As we finish picking Honeycrisp we are moving forward to picking the Cortland apples this week. Cortland apples are a very old variety of apples. It is a cross between the McIntosh and Ben Davis apples. Since the McIntosh is its parent, Cortlands have several similarities to McIntosh. It cooks well, making good sauce and pies. Like the McIntosh, the Cortland apple does break apart when cooked or baked. We think it is sweeter than the McIntosh with a very white flesh. This white flesh makes a very “white” applesauce if the fruit is peeled before cooking it. If you prefer to cook a Cortland apple for sauce with the peel intact, the applesauce will have a pinkish to darker pink appearance depending on the stage of ripeness of the fruit. The Cortland has true followers and many will not purchase another variety. Consumers with dental implants or other dental issues find the Cortland a satisfying answer to eating fresh apples as the texture is soft when ripe.
Harvest is moving forward in the orchard. We are making plans to pick Grimes Golden, Yellow Delicious and Northern Spy late this week and into next week.