Apples of Uncommon Character by Rowan Jacobsen

Apples of Uncommon Character by Rowan Jacobsen

Author:Rowan Jacobsen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781632860354
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00


Alias Rome, Gillett’s Seedling

Origin Rome Township, Ohio, 1817.

Appearance Stunning apple with Hollywood appeal. Its smooth skin, high color, tight curves, and cute freckles mark it as the All-American Apple Next Door.

Flavor Smells a bit like roses. Mildly sweet, not acidic, and incredibly perfumed.

Texture Wow, that’s some tough skin. The thick, mealy flesh is dry and unappealing.

Season September to October.

Use Cooking and drying. Keeps until spring. Awful fresh.

Region Midwest, especially Ohio.

Like Cinderella, the Rome Beauty was never intended to be anything more than an invisible helper. When apple shoots are grafted onto rootstocks, the rootstock plays no role in the tree except to pump water and nutrients from the ground. It’s been selected for its skill as a wet nurse, never a bearer of its own fruit. Whenever a rootstock sends up a shoot, it is quickly lopped off. Yet along the banks of the Ohio River in 1817, Joel Gillett yanked a shoot off the rootstock of one of his newly acquired apple trees and handed it to his son Alanson, who planted it without ceremony, probably thinking he might get some livestock feed out of it. Instead, the little tree began producing some of the handsomest apples the world has ever seen. The Rome Beauty was born (that’s Rome, Ohio), though the flooding Ohio River took the original tree in 1860.

By the late 1800s, Rome Beauty was a commercial star, competing with Ben Davis in the Ohio River Valley, New Jersey, and some points south. Like Ben Davis, its thick skin and general starchiness made it a superb keeper, and it was once ubiquitous in general stores. As recently as 1995, Rome was the number three apple in America, ahead of all save the Delicious duo, with Mac, Fuji, and Granny Smith nipping at its heels. It tastes awful when fresh, but that dry gumminess is exactly what made it a famous cooker. In fact, this beauty was long known as “Queen of the Baking Apples” and “Baker’s Buddy.” Peeled and concentrated in a pie or crisp, it blossoms.

Smokehouse



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