Ohlson

Today's apple, Ohlson, arrived in rough shape, with many bruises. ¶ 

It is a cylindrical apple with a base broader than its top, a yellow apple with orange-red specks and vertical streaks that look like red oil floated onto the peel in water. 

It is possible to distinguish the lenticels, faintly, in the unblushed regions. There is a small amount of ribbing. 

The grower writes that this tree "produces large fruits that weigh little." I do not have a scale, but my sample is large (though not huge) and this feels true. (Note as well how slender is the stem that supports this apple.)

Avoiding the bruises, at least at first, is tricky. I find that bruised apples, of almost any variety, taste strongly of pressed sweet cider.

Tasting

I interpret the first bite of my Ohlson as an apple past its prime. Though not unpleasant, the pale yellow flesh, fine grained, has a foot on the path to mealy. Indeed, regions of the apple, adjacent to the surface, have browned. 

That is the worst of it, but the rest of the apple is quite palatable. Sweet and well-balanced, the flesh is, for an apple, dry. 

Perhaps that accounts for its relative light weight: air in place of juice. (And perhaps—and I only mean this half fancifully—the light-and-airy apple has oxidized before being cut open.)

There is not much else to distinguish the flavor except for a lemony note.

Very possibly, an earlier sample would bear clearer flavors, maybe some spice.

Ohlson thoughts

This is obviously disappointing, but still an interesting experiment for me. It cannot in any sense be definitive of this variety.

Perhaps a reader will share his or her experience of this variety.

Josh, the Snohomish orchardist who very kindly sent me this and other apples, says Ohlson originated near Puyallup, Washington in 1935. That account is corroborated by many online sources. 

I doubt it is grown commercially (if at all) anywhere on the East Coast, and so I am especially grateful for a crack at it.