Golden Delicious
Encyclopedia
The Golden Delicious is a cultivar
of apple
with a yellow color. It is not closely related to the Red Delicious
apple.
. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is a favorite for salad
s, apple sauce, and apple butter
.
possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden
and Golden Reinette. The original tree was found on the Mullins' family farm in Clay County, West Virginia
, United States
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.
In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the Golden delicious apple. It had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.
by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1955. Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.
Harvested from autumn through winter.
, and the Guyandotte, which is believed extinct.
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
of apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
with a yellow color. It is not closely related to the Red Delicious
Red Delicious
The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars, that was recognized in Madison County, Iowa, United States, in 1880...
apple.
Appearance and flavor
Golden Delicious is a large, yellow skinned cultivar and very sweet to the tasteTaste
Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is a favorite for salad
Salad
Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...
s, apple sauce, and apple butter
Apple butter
Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve...
.
History
This cultivar is a chance seedlingChance seedling
A chance seedling is a plant that is the product of unintentional breeding. It may be a genetically unique individual with desirable characteristics that is then intentionally bred. Plants that come from the artificial union of gametes from a maternal and paternal source are not chance...
possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden
Grimes Golden
Grimes Golden is a cultivar of apple originated in Wellsburg, West Virginia in 1832 on the farm of Thomas Grimes in the present day Pittsburgh Tri-State. It could be the origin of the famous Golden Delicious....
and Golden Reinette. The original tree was found on the Mullins' family farm in Clay County, West Virginia
Clay County, West Virginia
-External links:***...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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
Red Delicious
The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars, that was recognized in Madison County, Iowa, United States, in 1880...
in 1914.
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." But there is more to the story. For anyone connected with agriculture, the name of George C Deems will probably pull a memory chord. He began as an Agriculture Extension agent in 1933, in Clay County, West Virginia serving there for eight years and an additional two years in Doddridge county. In Clay County, George Deems was instrumental in preserving and perpetuating the original Stark's Golden delicious apple tree on A. H. Mullins property back in 1938. The famed tree came to the attention of the Stark Brothers a number of years before, when Mr. Mullins sent three apples to Mr. Stark one fine April. The Golden Delicious' long keeping qualities were soon abundantly evident to Mr. Stark, as well as to United States Pomologist Colonel Brackett, in Washington, and the nursery bought the tree and ground on which it stands from Mr. Mullins for the -then-golden sum of $5,000.00, after verifying that the tree was the producer of the long sought perfect yellow apple. George Deems visited the famed tree shortly after he became extension agent and personally pruned the valuable tree while a DPW, That's Department of Public Works, to predepression kids- project renovated and restored the protective woven wire cage that guarded the tree against clandestine pruners who would have otherwise whittled it down, graft by graft.
In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the Golden delicious apple. It had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.
Official Status
The Golden Delicious was designated the official state fruit of West VirginiaWest Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1955. Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.
Season
Other West Virginia apples
West Virginia is the originator of many vegetable and fruit crops, including the apples Grimes GoldenGrimes Golden
Grimes Golden is a cultivar of apple originated in Wellsburg, West Virginia in 1832 on the farm of Thomas Grimes in the present day Pittsburgh Tri-State. It could be the origin of the famous Golden Delicious....
, and the Guyandotte, which is believed extinct.
Descendent cultivars
- Arlet (Golden Delicious × Idared)
- Bohemia (Lord Lambourne × Golden Delicious)
- Chantecler (Golden Delicious × Reinette Clochard)
- Delbarestivale delcorf (Golden Delicious × Stark Jonagrimes)
- ElstarElstarThe Elstar apple is an apple cultivar that was first developed in the Netherlands in the 1950s by crossing Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie apples. It quickly became popular, especially in Europe and was first introduced to America in 1972...
(Ingrid Marie × Golden Delicious) - JonagoldJonagoldJonagold is a cultivar of apple, a cross between Golden Delicious and Jonathan which was developed in 1953 in New York. They form a large sweet fruit with a thin skin. Because of their large size they are now favoured by commercial growers in many parts of the world...
(Golden Delicious × Jonathan) - PinovaPinovaPinova is an apple cultivar, a cross between a Golden Delicious, Cox's Orange Pippin and a Duchess of Oldenburg....
(Clivia × Golden Delicious) - Tentation delblush (Grifer (Blushing Golden) × Golden Delicious)
- Cripps PinkCripps PinkCripps Pink is a variety of apple, from which apples meeting quality standards can be sold under the trade mark name Pink Lady. The Cripps Pink variety was originally bred by John Cripps at the Western Australia Department of Agriculture by crossing the Australian apple Lady Williams with a Golden...
(Lady Williams × Golden Delicious) - Mutsu (apple)Mutsu (apple)The apple was introduced in 1948 and is a cross between the Golden Delicious and the Indo apple varieties first grown in Japan, and named after the Mutsu Province of Japan, where it was presumably first grown....
(Indo apple × Golden Delicious)
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 Golden Delicious (fr.wikipedia.org)