Today was Friday, the first day of the 50th Common Ground Country Fair. The weather was near-perfect, and the crowd was one of the largest ever. The apple display was a big hit, and our apple ID team was busy non-stop answering questions and identifying apples brought to us from throughout Maine and beyond.
And the winner is…PIPSQUEAK
At 3 PM we held the Friday-version of the annual apple tasting. The “Hayloft” speakers tent was packed with enthusiastic apple-tasters, and the crowd spilled over into the surrounding space. We had 12 especially curated apples to taste. Per usual, Sean Turley and I emceed. The winner of the tasting was our own Pipsqueak apple, a Frostbite x Chestnut Crab cross that originated here at Super Chilly Farm (As Joe Castiglione liked to say, “Can you believe it?”) Second place went to perennial favorite, Canadian Strawberry. Third went to Trescott, a seedling from eastern-most Maine discovered by Elizabeth Benjamin. Forth was another perennial favorite, St. Edmonds Russet.
Although the available pool of apples is always limited by what happens to be ripe at the moment, we were still able to include a wide assortment of selections with a diversity of flavor profiles and stories, including heirlooms, recent releases, cider apples, wild seedlings and more.