Summer Banana

Summer Banana: This apple is from Marion County, South Carolina  and was  first grown in the late 1800’s. It is so named because it can have a slight banana aroma when fully ripe. This apple was my grandmother’s favorite. No other apple fries as well, and my grandmother loved fried apples. Its fresh taste is also quite exceptional for an apple ripening during the heat of the summer. Many tales are told of this apple being the choice of tobacco laborers during their brief breaks from the fields. There is also a Winter Banana that is said to have some of the same characteristics, but it ripens in October and is not preferred as a cooking apple. The Summer Banana’s  fruit is usually medium in size, a deep yellow with small light green splotches and perhaps a few red dots at its peak of ripeness. The flesh is  fine grained and can have a faint smell of banana if fully ripe. Fruit ripens in August into September. (One of my favorites)