The Orléans apple — developed on Île d’Orléans, Que. — is hitting grocery store shelves this fall, but has been in the works for nearly 25 years.
Beginning back in 2002, producers handpicked pollen from Honeycrisps and Empire apple flowers, and then spent years crossbreeding them until they arrived at the bright red and crisp Orléans. While it has been available in Quebec orchards for about two years, it’s only now hitting grocery store shelves.
“I have some clients coming here asking especially for that kind,” says Karen Morin. She thinks it just might be “the apple of the future.”
The co-owner of the Verger du Roy in Portneuf grows 57 different types of apples, but Morin says the Orléans is growing more and more popular this year with apple pickers.
“It’s a mix of Honeycrisp and Empire, so these two together, it’s like a bomb. It’s really, really good, so sweet [and] still really crispy,” says Morin. “In the future, our children, it won’t be the Honeycrisp anymore that will be the top one, it will be the Orléans.”
Morin says that, while apple preferences can vary from generation to generation, people are always looking for apples that stay crisper longer. She believes that’s why the Orléans apple is increasing in popularity.
Karen Morin says the Orléans apple has been growing in popularity for the past two years with apple pickers, but many people still aren’t aware of the latest apple varieties coming to the market. (Sarah-Kate Dallaire/CBC)
“It’s like on the top of the list for firmness, and it’s almost top of the list for sugar content,” says
Benoit Caron, the owner of La Maison de la Pomme. Caron planted 20,000 Orléans trees at his orchard in Frelighsburg about five years ago.
“It’s not the first apple created in Quebec, but it’s the first one that we can supply at least 10 months a year because of [its] conservation,” says Caron.
He adds that this particular variety is great as a snack, “but it’s also a really good apple for cooking. It will hold itself together. So if you do apple custard or apple pie, you will have the nice apple slice that will stay together.”
Jérôme-Antoine Brunelle, the executive director of the Producteurs de pommes du Québec, says it’s good to have new varieties to appeal to all the different types of consumers, but that the demand for Quebec produce has also been growing recently.
“If these new varieties can help us gain market shares from imported apples and that we can source more of Quebec-grown apples to consumers, it’s a win for everyone,” he says.
Brunelle says recent tensions with the U.S. and tariff woes did have an impact. “Consumers had more of an interest in locally sourced food,” he says, and apples were no exception.
There’s been a bigger interest for locally sourced apples for the past two years, “and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” says the executive director of the Producteurs de pommes du Québec, Jérôme-Antoine Brunelle. (Sarah-Kate Dallaire/CBC)
“That interest for locally sourced fruit helps us out, and we see that Quebec consumers are more conscientious of where their food comes from,” says Brunelle.
He says he is aware, however, that producers and grocery stores must make sure Quebec apples are clearly identified as such in produce aisles to attract more consumers .
Claude Jolicoeur, an author who’s published three books about apples and cider production, wants to increase the number of apple varieties in Quebec, specifically for cider. “And eventually maybe to have an appellation ‘regional cider,'” he says.
Jolicoeur says this could bring Quebec cider production to another level, similar to wine production in Italy — where different grape varieties, grown in different regions, produce different types of wines, with distinct flavours.
Morin, for instance, says Quebec-grown apples can also taste like other fruits, such as bananas, pineapples, strawberries, and even chestnuts.
“You can compare apples with apples, but they’re different,” she says.
Regardless of their provenance or flavour, cider apples would not be the same ones as those picked in orchards, or bought at the grocery store, however. “When you want to sell apples in a grocery store, that apple has to be beautiful,” says Jolicoeur.
In the cider context, however, he notes, “no one is going to see the apple, so what it looks like is not important at all.”
Jolicoeur hopes Quebec cider and apple producers will grow more and more Quebec apple varieties in the coming years.
However, apple producers reiterate, in the meantime, several apple varieties are already available year round, not only in the fall — including the brand new Orléans.
