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.
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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.
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