Apples Gone Golden

I've never stored Golden Delicious apples long term before even though the old tree has been here for years.  We've tended to either eat them quite quickly or stew and freeze them.  Golden Delicious apples stewed with a little sugar and cinnamon are heavenly!  

This year I stored a box of them wrapped in newspaper and I've discovered they are not especially good keepers.  They're already shrivelling up somewhat and going quite soft so I'm going to stew and freeze these ones too.

What is very noticeable though is the gorgeous golden colour they have turned.  Straight off the tree and kept short term they are a rather pale, insipid green-more-than-gold colour which did always make me wonder why they called them Golden Delicious.  Now I know why!   Keep them long enough and they really are gloriously gold and delicious! 

Golden Delicious Apples

One of our old apple trees is a Golden Delicious, planted by my maternal grandfather back in the late 1940's.  I was quite intrigued to read that this apple tree has 57,000 genes,  which is the highest number of genes recorded in the plants mapped to date.

The Golden Delicious hails from Mullins Farm in Clay County, West Virginia, USA where it was unintentionally bred.  It is probably a cross between a Grimes Golden and a Golden Reinette.   Stark Brother's Nurseries obtained the rights to the tree and first marketed it in 1914.

In our orchard it's a small tree and not the most prolific but every year it produces a yield of medium sized, crisp, sweet, all purpose apples which are good to eat or use in a favourite treat such as apple crumble or apple shortcake.