I’ve certainly been doing my research on apple varieties, with a focus on heirloom apples. Which apples grow best in climates like ours? What do others say about their flavor and use? Which have the healthiest profile? (Yes it can vary a lot!) However, no amount of academic research supplants the need to experience the texture and flavor of each variety considered for “lifetime appointment” in my small orchard.

This fall I was on an apple-tasting mission. I wanted to try as many diverse apples as I possibly could, with a focus on heirloom apples that could be grown in colder climates. A small home orchard has always been part of the dream, and I’m anxious to get a start on this as I know that it can be multiple years before new trees will bear fruit. What a shame it would be to make that investment and then find out you’re not crazy about your apples!

This mission led to a few adventures, most notably a trip to Scott Farm Orchard in Vermont, which grows an incredible selection of 130 heirloom apples. We spent a lovely day enjoying their beautiful grounds, picnicking, tasting apples and taking notes. (See below!) Basically, a dream day for me… and I don’t think Urban Husband minded it too much either. 

Why focus on heirloom apples and diversity?

Why pursue these obscure heirloom apples that I’ve never even tried before? I could simply focus on the blockbuster commercial successes put out by the University of MN, which have been found quite agreeable to the collective palate of the masses. (Honeycrisp, anyone?) They’re also designed to grow well in our home state of Minnesota. There are three primary reasons to pursue less common varieties of apple: healthier apples, stronger apples, and tastier apples.

What makes a healthier apple?

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away…” this familiar phrase was apparently coined during Prohibition when hard cider was prohibited and apple-growers needed to replace lost business with fresh apple eating. The saying was likely more true then than it is now. At that time, the apple supply was much more diverse and a little closer to its wild origins in the mountains of Kazakhstan. 

According to Jo Robinson, the closer a fruit or vegetable is to its wild roots, the more health-giving properties it generally has. Fruit and vegetables that have been bred for man’s purposes have usually been bred for high-yield profitability, transport durability, and storage longevity …and to continually impress an ever-increasing sweet tooth. As a result, the varieties you see year after year in the grocery store have, on average, a much higher sugar profile and lower levels of antioxidants, polyphenols, and vitamins than older apple varieties. Incidentally, an exception is the Granny Smith apple, which Jo Robinson and many others recommend as the healthiest choice in the grocery aisle. 

If you are growing your own, you have the opportunity to choose from many more varieties with healthier profiles. Some of the varieties Jo Robinson recommends can be found here.

What makes an ecologically strong apple?

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” This phase is true of apple physics but not apple genetics. If you plant a seed from an apple, the resulting tree will produce apples that bear little resemblance to the original apple, and which are likely far less palatable. The bottomless bins of identical apples at the supermarket are made possible by a tree-cloning process called grafting. The only way to replicate an apple is to take a part of that apple tree and graft it onto the root of another tree. At this point we have thousands and thousands of orchards around the world filled with trees that are exact DNA replicas of about a dozen popular varieties. (More on this fascinating dynamic in Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire.)

You can imagine the implications of this. Most importantly, it is much easier for pests to adapt and conquer. Once one pest cracks the code to siphoning life out of a particular tree type, it thrives, multiplies and has almost limitless easy picking. In response, over time, orchard growers have to use more and more pesticides on these popular tree types as they become more vulnerable. For someone who wants to avoid pesticides (and who doesn’t?!) biodiversity is an important tool and approach.

Planting less common varieties helps with this issue of pest resistance, and so does planting a mix of apple types. In fact, planting genetically unique trees Johnny Appleseed-style would be great for your biodiversity, but would for the most part yield apples only worthy of cider-making. Planting and preserving rare heirloom varieties is a great compromise between diversity and enjoying a predictably tasty apple out of hand.

What are the tastiest apples?

This is subjective, but I’ve come to appreciate that the apples on our grocery shelves generally overperform on sweetness and underperform on complexity of flavor. Over the past century, apple growers have continuously selected and bred for the sweetest possible apple, to impress the ever-increasing sweet tooth of Americans. At some point you realize the flavor experience isn’t that interesting anymore, as did Zeke Goodband, the orchardist at Scott Farm.

Zeke is a rebel orchardist who describes the popular Honeycrisp as too “one-note.” Apparently even his pigs turn their noses up at it. Zeke grew up eating Red Delicious, but had an “epiphany” after trying some varieties in old, overgrown orchards in Maine. He began collecting cuttings and curating his own collection of rare varieties which is now best showcased at Scott Farm.

When you try these varieties, there is so much more complexity to experience. With every bite you begin to notice another dimension of the flavor or see it in a new way. Some of these apples will make you wonder why anyone bothered to preserve the variety. Some of these apples will blow you away, thinking I never knew an apple could taste like that… citrus-y, floral-y, nutty, spicy. 

Heirloom Apple Tasting Notes

This fall I tried about 30 new-to-me apple types, mostly at Scott Farm. These are mostly heirloom, but also include a few other interesting apples that are not commonly found in grocery stores. In general, the heirloom apples tend to have more subtle flavors and softer textures… the worst made me feel like I was eating a potato! There were many that were quite interesting, and some that I loved. I’ve asterisked my favorites, which are in consideration for my own orchard. For more info on these apples and descriptions that come from a more experienced and witty food writer, I highly recommend checking out this book. 

Not Pictured:

Black Oxford — Crisp, dry, bland. Like eating a raw potato?

Sweet 16 — I got this from our neighbor in Minnesota. It’s a U of MN variety that is both very sweet and very complex. It felt less like eating an apple, and more like the experience of eating a full-on pastry with a cherry flavor and hint of vanilla in the frosting. Fun novelty, but maybe a bit much for my own orchard.

Wolf River — Soft, mealy and bland. These apples from Wisconsin are known for their large size and mostly used for pies. They may grow well in the Midwest, but for me large size does not make up for blandness.

The Great Heirloom Apple Taste Testing Results

After all the tasting, my shortlist for the initial planting in my orchard includes Ashmead’s Kernel (my favorite tasting apple of the bunch), Belle de Boskoop, Northern Spy, Liberty (for practical reasons – known to be reliable), Bramley’s (for cooking and vitamin C), and a crabapple – the Dolgo or the Chestnut Crab. That last one I haven’t even tried, but the description in my favorite apple book is just SO compelling it jumped onto my shortlist! Of course I’ll be limited by availability so we’ll see what we can get at the right time. I’ve found these rarer trees are harder to come by and go out of stock quickly. The best sources I’ve found for cold-hardy heirloom trees are Fedco in Maine and Twisted Tree Farm in Michigan.

Expand Your Apple Appreciation Palate

If you ever find yourself in Vermont in the fall, you should definitely make a trip to the Scott Farm Orchard near Brattleboro. Whether you’re planning on having apple trees or not, you can partake in the great and diverse palate of heirloom apples. Check their calendar and see if you can hit an orchard tour, a class, or Heirloom Apple Days. Or come on any nice day to enjoy the grounds and some apples (heirloom apples are available at the farmstand, and a more limited selection can be picked.) The location itself is delightfully charming. The Stone Trust operates on-site, which offers training in the age-old skill of creating dry stone walls (stone walls with no mortar.) Their beautiful handiwork is featured around the farm and in the barns. It’s fun for kids and adults to explore, and incredibly picturesque — we captured some great family photos here!

Have you tried any heirloom apples? What did you think of them? Do you think any of my descriptions are on-point or did I miss the mark? I’d love to hear your experiences!