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Photos by J.A. Cline
Providence Apple
Close up of flowers being pollinated at bloom
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Photo by J.A. Cline
Providence in Bloom
In full bloom in the test plot at the Simcoe Research Station.
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Photo by J.A. Cline
Providence Fruit
Fruit colour develops relatively early in the growing season.
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Photo by J.A. Cline
Providence Red Leaves
Flowers showing the red colour of spur leaves and developing extension leaves and the shoot apex.
The University of Guelph has developed and is preparing to release a new apple for the cider industry, with red flesh and the ability to produce a bright red apple cider.
“The apple has several unique features well suited for the apple cider industry and processing industries,” wrote Dr. John Cline, a professor of Pomology and Tree Fruit Physiology at U of G. “The apple as a very crimson red flesh that produced crimson coloured juice for cider, jams and jellies.
Called the ‘Providence’, the new apple was bred and developed by Cline and tested for nearly 20 years at the Simcoe Research Station. The apple originated from an open-pollinated cross-breed conducted in 2000 with the variety ‘Empire’ as the female parent.
One selection designated as B17Crab7 was selected for further evaluation and propagated onto clonal M.26 rootstock, and trees were then planted in 2007. Since then several trees have been grafted onto dwarfing rootstock and are in production at the Simcoe Research Station, starting in 2015.
Cline says he wasn’t originally working on a red-fleshed apple, but a combination of events led him down that path.
“It was a serendipitous discovery in a sense,” Cline says. “We had this apple that we developed 20 years ago, and it only became more apparent to me when I started working on cider probably about eight years ago when I realized the industry was looking for red-fleshed apples to make red juice to colour the cider. So, it was a bit of a chance thing that we had the apple, and it fit in with what we were hearing from the industry.”
Originally, Cline says, it was observation of what large American cider producers were doing that led the team at Guelph to start working on a specialty red juice apple.
“If you go to the US you’ll see big producers like Angry Orchard already producing a rosé cider, and research done at University of Michigan and Cornell where I sort of had my ear to the ground, they’re looking at this too.”
The aptly named Providence apple has a distinct red-purple skin, an ellipsoid shape like a plum, shows bright red flesh through the mesocarp, and typically ranges from 20 to 43 grams when trees are not thinned. The extracted juice is high in acidity with soluble solids at a concentration of around 12 per cent. It is high in polyphenols and has an astringent, bitter flavour.
Photo by J.A. Cline
Providence Tree
Photo of four-year-old ‘Providence’/M.26 trees
The trees are also very productive and annual bearing when they are not thinned, with Cline reporting yields up to 100 kilograms per 11-year-old tree. The crop load averaged 16 to 32 fruits per square centimeter of trunk cross sectional area.
Providence would have a number of potential uses, such as producing an apple jam or jelly, but Cline says the most obvious is for cider due to the high acidity and tannins and the colour. The apple is also a very rich source of anti-oxidants, such as flavonoids, flavanols and anthocyanins, so the juice would have enhanced health benefits for humans.
“What makes a good apple for cider is the tannins, which crab apples typically have more of, and that gives you the mouth feel you need for a quality cider,” Cline explains. “Often you’ll see regular apples used in a mix for ciders, but by themselves they don’t give the complexity of flavour that one demands from a true craft cider.”
The Providence provides both complexity of flavour with the look of a rosé cider, and the fruit is already being grown in Canada under license by Warwick Orchards and Nursery, a farm located in Ontario between Sarnia and London.
The newly developed apple comes into play just as rosé cider became popular in the US and Canada. Angry Orchard, MillerCoors, Strongbow, Bold Rock, and many other companies in the US are just a few of the companies looking to capitalize on the trend that first caught the attention of consumers in 2017-2018.
Angry Orchard’s red cider is made with six different apple varieties, including one red flesh apple that gives the beverage a distinctive colour and flavour, but the company also adds hibiscus. Other competing ciders have an apple base, but add other elements like rose petals. Experts in the industry say rosé ciders are growing in popularity because they are more photogenic on Instagram feeds, and because of the growing popularity of rosé wines.
The US Association of Cider Makers also says cideries are looking for new products to continue the upward curve in popularity for craft cider products.
“It’s a common refrain in the wine sector right now that drinkers are looking for a lower alcohol, more refreshing, food friendly product,” said executive director Michelle McGrath in a 2018 report.“Cider meets that criteria, so rose cider is a strategy to woo wine drinkers.”
Providence Juice
The USACM notes that cider sales increased rapidly from 2011 to 2016, but the growth rate began slowing through 2018 and beyond. Combining cider with already hot trends like the turn to so-called “Millennial Pink” beverages is seen as one way the industry can continue to attract new customers.
Dr. John Cline
Dr. John Cline, a professor of Pomology and Tree Fruit Physiology at U of Guelph.
In the meantime, however, Cline says there are more challenges to overcome in the cider industry that would help crab apples become more competitive. While the crab apples are better for cider, they are also very small compared to table apples, and are therefore more difficult to harvest efficiently.
For that reason, he says, research is being done not just on developing better apples for cider, but also devising better techniques to harvest them.
“Horticulturally one of the challenges with crab aples is the size is so small, so in order to move this forward in a big way we have to find a way to mechanically harvest them,” Cline says. “To handpick them, it would be like cherries, and you don’t have to keep them in perfect condition because you aren’t marketing them as fresh fruit, so mechanical harvesting makes sense.
“We already have some ideas about that. For example, you could shake the trees using various technologies and have the fruit automatically placed in the bin, and then off to the press.”
Even so, Cline believes the new apple will be a valuable addition to the industry as it provides excellent juice with what is now a trendy, attractive colour.
The apple yields an impressive 809 litres per tonne of fruit, with a BRIX of 12 per cent and a pH of between 3.0 to 3.5, and Titrable acidity of six to 12 grams per litre.
The University of Guelph is currently negotiating licenses with various nurseries. Anyone interested in acquiring a license can contact Ms. Rattan Gill at the U of G Research Innovation Office by email at rattang@uoguelph.ca.