The Basque apple in all its forms!
The apple is part of the Basque heritage. The Basque terroir lends itself wonderfully to the cultivation of several varieties of local apples, old Basque varieties.
Old Basque apple varieties:
As an example, here is a presentation of the apples produced in the orchards of our producer Eztigar in the northern Basque Country:
The Mamula is a variety of apple that is very close to the Eztika apple. A large stone fruit, uniform green turning yellow late, it is tart and sweet with a hint of bitterness.
Ondomotxa is a small apple that turns completely yellow when ripe, very sweet and rich in tannin, it is excellent for making cider.
Gordin xuria is a large white apple with an excellent sugar/acidity balance, it is the legendary apple of the Basque Country! It becomes almost white when ripe. It keeps very well and reaches maturity in mid-November.
Eztika is a small white bittersweet apple (very marked bitterness), it is very close to the Mamula apple. Large stone fruit, uniform green turning yellow late, it is tangy and sweet with a hint of bitterness.
The apple Anisa is also called Apez sagarra (priest's apple). It is undoubtedly the best known, most appreciated and most used (apple jelly, juice, cider) in the Northern Basque Country. A fairly small fruit, with a fairly rough skin, brown-yellow in color with red-orange streaks in its sunny part. Its flesh, very white, is extremely tender. Very juicy, tangy, it develops an aniseed scent.
Peatxa is a very fragrant fruit, large in size with a rough, brown skin, sometimes speckled with young-straw patches, it has a firm, sweet, very acidic and juicy flesh. It is an excellent juice apple. Maturity: mid-October.
Eri sagarra is a flattened, sour apple with a fragrant taste. It is a fairly large fruit, straw yellow, spotted and streaked with red when exposed to sunlight. It keeps very well and is ripe at the end of October.
