Apples – Beauty is More Than Skin Deep
Why our apples look the way they do
Apples come in many colours, perhaps the most commonly know colour in Australia being red. There are many other colours however, such as green and yellow, and varying shades of them all. Some colours are striped while others are blocked.
Sun light on the apple skin assists enhancement of the final colour before it is picked. In some parts of the world there is not a lot of sunlight making apples grown in those places traditionally pale. While in other parts of the world apples are protected from pests by placing paper bags over them, effectively reducing sunlight on the skin, resulting in pale skin colour in these instances as well. In these situations consumers accept pale locally grown apples as the norm.
On our farm we keep our apples cool as they ripen in our hot summer sun, by growing a lush vegetative tree canopy over them and using overhead sprinklers. This protects the apples from burning and developing internal flesh problems from too much hot sun. As a result of this management practice some of our apples may have pale skin colour but they still taste amazing because we pick them when they are ripe.
How to tell when a pale apple is ripe
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A red apple just being red all over is not a clear definition of that apple being ripe and ready to eat. Most of us at some stage have probably bitten into an apple only to be disappointed that it doesn’t taste good.
The level of sugar and juice within the flesh is what makes an apple taste good. There are tools for measuring this sweetness but at GMP Farms we use the taste test, so if it’s good enough for us to eat, it’s ready for you. We do not harvest any of our fruit unless it passes our taste test. As our apples ripen we can actually see the sweetness developing as the pale back ground colour changes from green to creamy yellow, as with these Fuji apples pictured below.
Apples – Beauty is More Than Skin Deep