It finally rained. It began last night and rained off and on most of today. The final total was nearly 3/4”. Not the two inches we need, but it was the best rain we’ve had in weeks, and as much as we had in all of July put together.

This rainy day was the perfect time to complete a review of the apples still remaining in the root cellar. In case you’re wondering, most are long gone. Here are some of Skylar’s impressions:

“Apples are mostly all way past their prime, even if they are edible. Many of these apples have exceptional storage capacity although most of the fruit have a ‘root cellar must,’ which is mostly isolated to the skin of the apple. It isn’t something that can be tasted in the flesh of the apples . The apples have gotten more dry, mealy, or soft. Moisture has been lost, and sugars, starches, and other compounds have broken down. As a general rule, acidity has declined a lot, astringency too, bitterness lingers, as well as sweetness to some extent. Volatiles also seem to have broken apart and declined to a great extent. Some new aromas from fermentation, rot, and the storage environment have taken their place.”

This year’s storage-apple-winner might have to be Tozette Russet (aka GR2), the ancient Golden Russet-type we’ve found in multiple mid-coast locations but have still not identified: “quite sweet, major wrinkly, honey-ish”. It won’t be long before we’ll be eating the first of this summer’s apples!