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Question about apples

Fri., Feb. 20, 2015

Presently, available on the retail market is a variety of apple that does not readily turn brown on its cut surfaces, a feature that commends it for use in salads. Its name is Cortland, a variety developed in the state of New York, and I believe a derivative of the Empire apple.

My wife and I accidentally became acquainted with the Cortland about 40 years ago, when we found a tree of this variety on a small Wisconsin farmette that we briefly owned.

I leave it to experts in the fruit industry to tell us why the Cortland’s resistance to browning feature has not been made widely known, even bred into other varieties, in view of the convenience and popularity of using apples in salads.

Leonard C. Johnson

Moscow

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