Tru-Cape tastes historic apple 351 years later

Henk Griessel and Buks Nel, authors of Apples in the Early Days at The Cape about historic varieties.

On the 17th of April 1662 Jan van Riebeeck made this historic entry in his diary: “Heavy drizzle in the morning and a strong northwesterly wind blowing in from the sea. Today the first two ripe Dutch apples were picked in the Company’s nursery garden. They came from a little tree no more than 5 feet high. This type of apple is known as a Wijnappel…”

On the 17th of April 2013, exactly 351 years later, ELGIN Grabouwer reported as follows on its Facebook page: “Heavy drizzle in the morning and a strong northeasterly wind blowing in the Elgin Valley. Invited to join ARC Infruitec to pick a new apple variety known as Late Golden at its experimental farm in Grabouw …”

After a visit to the experimental farm close to the Elgin Grabouw Country Club, M. Khashief Soeker, of ARC Infruitec Pome Fruit Evolution and Genetics, explained that the apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) selection 3B-14-19 (Late Golden) was bred by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) as an extension to the ‘Golden Delicious’ (GD) picking season. GD harvest peaks toward the middle of March while the new selection ripens a month later around the middle of April every year – in our case 17 April 2013. The ARC hopes that this new selection will release the pressure on apple producers during the harvest of the GD season.
Like the normal ‘Golden Delicious’ cultivar, this selection is a ‘white flesh’-type, medium-sized (150g to 165g) fruit, with a light green to yellowish skin colour. It has a good storage potential, crispy texture with a sweetish taste and a flavour similar to, but not as good as GD. The ARC is still busy with evaluation of this new selection and it is hoping that it will help apple producers in South Africa with the lengthening of the Goldens picking season.
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