Jonagold apples

Everything seems to have stopped now that it's apple season and we have a pretty decent crop this year. We're into the time when most of the apples we pick are basically yellow - Jonagold, Goldblush, Golden Delicious, Fuji. We're still picking Rome and Jonathan and Red Delicious, but the yellow ones are bigger and very abundant this year.

Jonagolds are a cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious. They are delightfully sweet and a bit tart, sturdier than Golden Delicious. For years we've had difficulties with them. In our south orchard they seem to get more bitter rot than some others, and they also have been subject to cork spot. We've added lime to them and the cork spot is better, but still shows up in a few.

But more notable than that is the fact that they are oddly shaped. They can be very bumpy, lopsided, enormous, or somehow resembling small pumpkins, all the while tasting delicious. Unlike Red Delicious, Jonagolds do not demonstrate the importance of appearance over taste. They are beautiful in their unique way and taste wonderful.

Last night while I was sorting a couple thousand Jonagolds, I started loving the colors of ours. At first we pick them almost green, but as the season progresses, they add more colors, and I was seeing that last night. Some are almost completely red, some still pretty green, some yellow. But most are mottled red, orange, pink, green and yellow in different combinations. A few were the palest yellow with a pink cast. Some are greenish yellow with red blotches.

Randomly, I took a picture of one, pumpkin shaped, yellow with green, pink and red.

Last night I wanted to keep them all and just look at the colors all year.

Tomorrow we take a bunch of them to the market.

Jonagold apple