“A wrinkled apple from last year’s harvest.” (March 6, 1814)

This could be a Ribston Pippin – many of the cultivars we know today weren't bred until the mid-nineteenth century or later. Meanwhile we tend to lose sight of the sheer range of apple cultivars, but there’s one for every occasion! To eat straight off the tree (that’s a dessert apple), make cider, bake pies, make apple sauce, or store; for north-facing slopes, warmer regions, dry soil; resistant to scab or bitter pit; tart or sweet, juicy or woolly; green, yellow, orange or red skin; cream, greenish, pinkish or white flesh. The National Fruit Collection gives a good idea of the great variety.
The apple in the picture isn't a Ribston Pippin, though, it's a Rambour d'Hiver in our garden in France.

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