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Fruit Appearance

Fruit appearance is the way fruit looks. This sounds simple, but fruit descriptions can be surprisingly technical. When we describe fruit on our variety pages at Cummins Nursery, we use a few straightforward categories such as size, skin color and russeting, shape, and flesh color.

The nerdiest of the apple nerds, however, will describe minutiae such as the depth of the stem cavity and the appearance of the calyx. And instead of simply saying “round” or “longish” you might find such arcane descriptors as “oblong conical” or “oblate.” This is all well and good, and we celebrate such a passion for apples.

The appearance of fruit that is grown for supermarkets tends to have particular features such as smooth skin and colors that appeal to the shopper’s eye: deep scarlet reds and golden yellows. Fortunately, in recent years many consumers have learnt that the apple is not actually “of the eye” and that some of the less glossy varieties have the best flavors. These are the smart shoppers who cruise the aisles at farmers markets and U-pick orchards searching for an Elstar or a Freyberg.

On the other hand, some apples have truly unusual appearances. If you want to impress your friends with strange and wonderful looking apples, here are a few suggestions:

Chenango Strawberry: long like a goose egg.

Calville Blanc: deeply ribbed, like a bell pepper.

Black Oxford: practically black.

Transcendent Crab: bright orange skin and bright orange flesh.

Robert’s Crab: deep red flesh.

Court Pendu Plat: the flattest of the apples.

Karmijn de Sonneville: crimson overlaid with gold foil.

Wolf River or Spokane Beauty: huge!

Blue Pearmain: so beautiful, and a bit blue.






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