The Apple of Big Dreams

Have you discovered the great new American apple, COSMIC CRISP?

As one who has grown rare heritage apples—American Colonial, English, French, Russian—and tasted gorgeous apples from all over the world—I’m here to tell you that this seedling conceived in 1997 by horticulturist Bruce Barritt at Washington State University and developed by pome fruit breeder Kate Evan is indeed one of the greats of all countries and time.

As a matter of fact, Cosmic Crisp is expected to replace Red Delicious (introduced 1872) and Gala (1980) as America’s go-to apples.

What makes it great?

It really is crisp—firm yet crunchy and juicy–which is, of course, half the fun of biting into an apple.

It is sweet with an overlay of tartness—perfect balance.

Due to this relatively high level of sugar and acidity, the flesh stays creamy after exposed to air for hours—no brown slices in the lunchbox, fruit cup, salad. A big plus.

Grown in Washington state near the Columbia River, fruits generally ripen in late September, then will keep in cold storage for months. That’s because of parent long-keeping Enterprise.
Our organic apples keep crisp on our kitchen table for a week to ten days.

The Cosmic part of the name is because little white specs (lenticels) in the wine-red flesh seem like distant stars…lovely.

It is a big beautiful apple. “Big”—I just weighed one, 10.75 ounces. Lovely heft. Some weigh a couple of ounces less.

I am grateful to the apple because I couldn’t get grandson Cameron to eat fruit. Then one morning for his breakfast I cut up a Cosmic Crisp into 24 bite-size chunks…when he’d left for school, they were all gone. That made both of us happy, now it’s part of his breakfast each day.

And I find a big Cosmic Crisp the perfect lunch.

It took twenty years to develop, and the apple has been on the market since 2019. I came in sideways to the apple—first discovered parent Honeycrisp…then one day bought a Cosmic Crisp. Whoa.

I asked our favorite grocer why these apples are only $2.99 a pound when other varieties are costlier. Doug said because they are so plentiful.

Doug’s apples are organic.

The apple’s website* tells us the apple is good for baking and cooking. Haven’t done that yet.  Although I read somewhere it makes a very good candied apple. Will report.

Just to give you an idea of why this is called ‘The Apple of Big Dreams:”**

1997: The pollinated cross between ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Honeycrisp’ was planted

1998: Seed of the resultant fruit was germinated and raised in a greenhouse…seedling transferred to a nursery

1999: Bud of the seedling grafted onto sturdy rootstock

2001: Resultant tree planted in an evaluation orchard

2002 and 2003: Fruit from this tree evaluated

2004: Buds taken from this tree grafted onto study rootstock

2006: 5 trees from resultant rootstock planted at each of 3 sites; additional trees budded onto rootstock for larger scale plantings

2019: Cosmic Crisp apples sent to market

According to its website, Cosmic Crisps are now available the year-around.

Blessings on the men and women who create such richness for us!

You can buy a seedling of a Cosmic Crisp apple and grow a tree in your garden if you live in Washington State.*** The apple is patented. Sigh.

* cosmiccrisp.com
**https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/47/8/article-p1177.xml
***Available from Raintree Nursery. Raintreenursery.com