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Cider Digest #1890
Subject: Cider Digest #1890, 8 August 2014
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1890 8 August 2014
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Normandy Recommendations (Stuart Madany)
book review: Apples of Uncommon Character (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Normandy Recommendations
From: Stuart Madany <stuart@castlehillcider.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2014 16:07:25 +0000
Hello,
I have the opportunity to visit Normandy, and am looking for your suggestio=
ns of must-visit cideries (and 'Calvadoseries').
Many thanks.
Stuart Madany
Castle Hill Cider
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Subject: book review: Apples of Uncommon Character
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2014 18:53:27 -0600
Some notes on
Apples of Uncommon Character
123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, & Little-Known Wonders
by Rowan Jacobsen
Bloomsbury, 2014
At first glance I dismissed this book as a "coffee table" type - one that
you'd leave out so that your friends could open it at random, leaf through
it for a few pages, then set aside as the conversation, imbibing, or eating
got serious. The bulk of the book is pictures and descriptions of the 123
apple varieties Jacobsend has chosen.
Well, it IS a nice CTB, but it's a lot more than that. Apple descriptions
run 1-4 pages each; there's some meat to the writing. The choices of
varieties range from the wonderful (like Roxbury Russet or Newtown Pippin)
to the notorious (Ben Davis or Red Delicious) to the just-plain-weird
(Knobbed Russet). Jacobsen spells out a lot of the ebb and flow of public
favor, and commercial reasons behind it.
The descriptions are not strictly abecedarian; they're grouped into summer,
dessert, bakers and saucers, keepers, cider, and oddballs. This helps make
it interesting to read a chunk of the book. Of course, any categorization
can leave you wondering why a particular apple landed in a particular
group--but that's just the interest-factor of those varieties. Like,
should Gravenstein be in summer, bakers, cider...? (It's in summer.)
One cross-check is, "How much does the list hew to popularity?" I compared
his list to my own plantings, since I've deliberately eschewed any common
varieties. (I'm not elitist; I just don't see the point in growing
something I can buy since I have limited time and energy.) I found 27 from
his list in my orchard, including some seldom-mentioned great apples like
Blenheim Orange, Westfield SNF, or Smokehouse.
Jacobsen has drawn a lot on information from some of our best living
apple (and cider) people: Tom Burford, Steve Wood, John Bunker, Ben Watson,
Diane Flynt, and more...as well as considerable historical writing of
Beach, Bunyard, Hogg and Bull, and more. He's a good writer.
I'm not much on recipes...it seems to be an obligatory last chapter of an
apple book. But give it a chance; there are a few unusual+interesting
ones.
Overall: recommended.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1890
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