Apples

The Canberra Times

The apple season is starting. But where to buy is the question, particularly as the enquiry into alleged supermarket price gouging gets underway. We tested the view on the ground among the apple trees.

Transcript

00:00 The way that apples are stored for retail means that sometimes, in fact more

00:05 often than not, the apple that you're eating off a shelf is at least 12 months

00:08 if not 18 months old. They're stored in carbon dioxide to stop them oxidizing

00:11 and it does mean that an apple in a shop isn't necessarily fresh. When you pick it

00:16 straight from the tree like this you can sit it on your bench for three or four

00:20 weeks without noticing any real sort of deterioration in the fruit. This is one

00:24 of the early season apples, the Akane. I've been told that Akane is Japanese

00:28 for blood red, specifically a deep red, and you can see that they shine

00:32 beautifully in the sun when polished. This is also a really interesting apple

00:37 because it has a more flat profile and they grow on the tree facing each other

00:41 which is one of the reasons why the top is so flat. The earliest season varieties

00:45 do tend to be the sweeter varieties but that's not necessarily always true. But

00:50 we do have things like the early golds, the golden delicious, they all come on

00:54 very early and they're quite famous for being virtually non-tart apples at all.

00:59 The golden delicious also quite famous for being a very good cooking apple, as

01:03 is the royal gala which doesn't crumble in the water. The golden delicious and

01:08 the royal gala both hold their shape when they're cooked so it's good to mix

01:12 them with another variety, perhaps a bell to boz scoop or a granny smith that can

01:16 become quite mushy so that you still have a lovely mouthfeel and a texture of

01:19 a really complex flavor.

01:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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