The Snug Cove Russet went for genetic testing thanks to the help of local pomology enthusiast Nancy Leonard who also took cuttings and has grafted many of our local heritage varieties to keep the heritage apple tree varieties going.
The Snug Cove Russet was tested due to its delicious flavour both as an eating and cooking apple, and because the red-tinged beautiful, bountiful blossoms it produces every spring are as large as a toonie, and make it a special tree to have year-round!
Here’s what the test results came back with:
“I tested the “Heritage Russet”… The first thing I found was that ‘Heritage Russet’ (HR) is a genetic match for your ‘Golden Reinette’ (GR). Is HR actually GR? Well, probably not, because the next thing I found is that your HR and GR match another cultivar already in our database: ‘Boskoop’ (also known as ‘Belle de Boskoop’). Apparently, one of the synonyms for Boskoop is ‘Gold Reinette’ (not ‘Golden Reinette’, which is a separate cultivar).
I have considered my genotype for ‘Boskoop’ to be a reliable one, because I tested a ‘Boskoop’ from Bill O’Keefe’s orchard (O’Keefe Grange) and it matched the genotype for ‘Boskoop’ published by the National Fruit Collection in the UK. All of this leads me to the conclusion that the ‘Bowen Heritage Russet’ is a ‘Boskoop’, and your ‘Golden Reinette’ is also a mislabelled ‘Boskoop’, possibly because it was originally labelled a ‘Gold Reinette’.
Further support for this identification comes from the fact that your trees are triploids, as ‘Boskoop’ is known to be, ‘Golden Reinette’ is a diploid. https://pomiferous.com/applebyname/belle-de-boskoop-id-637 describes it as 'Large, round conic in shape, sometimes tending to be lumpy. Very lightly ribbed on the sides and at the crown', all of which seems to fit your fruit quite well.”
So, there we go, the “Snug Cove Russet” is now confirmed as a “Belle de Boskoop”! Thank you to Nancy, the genetic testers and everyone who is keen to support local apples and Bowen heritage.
