| 'Golden Delicious' |
|---|
 |
| Hybrid parentage |
Parents unknown, theorized to be 'Golden Reinette' × 'Grimes Golden' |
| Cultivar |
| 'Golden Delicious' |
| Origin |
 Clay County, West Virginia, USA, 1905 |
The Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple with a yellow color. It is not genetically related to the Red Delicious apple.
Contents |
Appearance and flavor
Golden Delicious is a large, yellow skinned cultivar and very sweet to the taste. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is sweeter than the Granny Smith and is a favorite for salads, apple sauce, and apple butter.
History
This cultivar is a chance seedling possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden[1][2] and Golden Reinette[3] The original tree was found on the Mullins' family farm in Clay County, West Virginia and was locally known as Mullin's Yellow Seedling and Annit apple. Anderson Mullins sold the tree and propagation rights to Stark Brothers Nurseries, which first marketed it as a companion of their Red Delicious in 1914.[4]
I was born in 1876 on the farm where that apple tree later became famous. My dad was L. L. Mullins, who owned the farm. "Now one day, when I was about 15 years old, that would have been about 1891, dad sent me out with a big old mowin' scythe to mow the pasture field. "I was swingin' away with the scythe when I came across a little apple tree that had grown about 20 inches tall. It was just a new little apple tree that had volunteered there. There wasn't another apple tree right close by anywhere. "I thought to myself, 'Now young feller, I'll just leave you there,' and that's what I did. I mowed around it and on other occasions I mowed around it again and again, and it grew into a nice lookin' little apple tree and eventually it was a big tree and bore apples. "Now my dad later gave that piece of the farm in a trade to my brother, B. W. Mullins, and later still he traded the farm place to Uncle Anderson Mullins. "Uncle Anderson had a brother-in-law named Gus Carnes, and one day Gus and Uncle Anderson decided to send some of the apples to the Star Brothers nursery to tell what kind of apple it was. And that was when the tree became famous and started the Golden Delicious apple line, for it was that tree that has produced every last one of the Golden Delicious apple trees that have ever grown anywhere. "The Starks sent a man to look at the tree, just like you've heard, and they bought the tree and the ground for 30 feet around it, and eventually they fenced it. They were to get all the fruit from the tree, down to the last apple." [1]
The Golden Delicious was designated the official state fruit of West Virginia by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1955.[5] Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.
Season
Harvested from autumn through winter.
Other West Virginia Apples
West Virginia is the originator of many unique and well-known vegetable and fruit crops. It is currently recognized as being the home of three excellent apples: The Golden Delicious, the Grimes Golden, and the Guyandotte, which is believed extinct.
References
- ^ a b "Dunbar Man 'Discoverer' of Golden Delicious Apple". Charleston Daily Mail. October 18, 1962. http://www.wvculture.org/HISTORY/goldendelicious02.html. Retrieved 2008-07-27. "He is J. M. Mullins, now a man in his 87th year and living in Dunbar, though he spent his lifetime until recent years in Clay County."
- ^ (West Virginia Div. of Culture and History)
- ^ Mass, V. 1970. Golden Delicious. pp. 69-85. In North American apples: varieties, rootstocks, outlook. Michigan State Univ. Press, East Lansing.
- ^ "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core.". The Washington Post. August 5, 2005. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/04/AR2005080402194.html. Retrieved 2008-07-27. "When Stark's successors, in a similar stunt, found and named the Golden Delicious growing in West Virginia in 1914, the Delicious became Red Delicious."
- ^ Golden Delicious: State Fruit of West Virginia
External links
- Overview of various apple cultivars
- A cook's overview of various apple cultivars
- Golden Delicious apple, in What Am I Eating? A Food Dictionary
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