The Rome Beauty

Dear Friends, As I have written to you about apple season before, you probably recall the relish and melancholy that attends this time of year for me. My main apple grower, Paul of Nana Mae, has mostly Rome Beauties and Granny Smiths left. Last weekend, he explained how the Rome Beauty apple seemed to be going out of the style, how trees we being pulled up in favor of some of the newer super varieties, like the Honeycrisp. Now the Honeycrisp is a delicious apple, but a world of only Honeycrisps would be sorely lacking. Part of why the Rome Beauty has been around and is still grown fairly extensively (though it is falling out of favor) is its' variety of use and its' solid production. The apple is good eating and good for baking. I did not know it is not a good juicing apple and should be used, at most, as at 50% of a cider blend. The tree produces very well. So all in all, we have a great producing and very useful apple. When I entertained visions of having a couple of head of cattle, I wanted a Red Poll. The Red Poll is a manageable size (it is smaller). It is an easy breeder, good for meat, a pretty good milker, and nice looking. I understand the desire for bigger, better, sweeter, tastier, but what do we lose?

Sincerely yours, Alex