Silken is a pale eating apple with cream-to-ivory skin rather than red, and a gentle, honey-sweet taste.1Salt Spring Apple Company Ltd. Silken It is a modern Canadian variety, a late-summer apple meant to be enjoyed fresh rather than kept for months.2Acta Horticulturae. ‘Silken’, ‘Creston’ and ‘Chinook’: Three New Apples from Canada
What a Silken Apple Looks Like
The skin is the giveaway. It has a translucent, creamy look, sometimes touched with a slight pink blush.3Salt Spring Apple Company Ltd. Silken Descriptions range from ivory to pale yellow.4Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties That light color can also make it look unripe even when it is ready.5Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties
The usual mix-up at a stand is Golden Delicious, but its skin is a deeper, more buttery yellow and is often freckled with russet. Silken looks smoother and paler. Growing conditions change how pale apples look, so color alone isn’t a dependable test. Check the sign or ask the grower.
Size is the other clue. The fruit is medium to small.6Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties Grown in eastern Canada, the apples tend to be smaller than those from the west.7Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Regional differences in performance of Canadian-bred apple cultivars and implications for breeding A small Silken isn’t necessarily a poor one, since size varies with where it was grown.
Ripe fruit feels firm and comes off the stem easily with a gentle twist. A sweet aroma near the stem is a better clue than skin color, and the calendar helps too: ripe Silkens appear around McIntosh season.
How a Silken Apple Tastes
The flavor is very mild and sweet, often called honeyed.8Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties It has a pleasant sweet-tart balance rather than strong sharpness.9Acta Horticulturae. What Is a Silken Apple? Flavor, Origin, and Uses Shoppers generally favor sweet apples with little tartness and a fruity taste,10PubMed. Use of descriptive analysis and preference mapping for early-stage assessment of new and established apples so Silken suits people who find many apples too sour. People who love tart apples like Granny Smith may find Silken plain.
Against familiar apples, it is sweeter and gentler than McIntosh, which ripens at the same time. It is less intensely sweet-tart than Honeycrisp, and closer in mood to Gala, with that easy-eating sweetness.
Freshly picked, it is firm, very crisp and juicy.11Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties Still, in one panel comparing textures, Silken grouped with apples that have thin to moderate skin.12Foods. Modelling and Classification of Apple Textural Attributes Using Sensory, Instrumental and Compositional Analyses Crispness depends on freshness, so one picked weeks ago may eat softer. The thin skin makes it easy to bite and pleasant without peeling.
In tastings it has scored very high for flavor, looks and overall appeal.13Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties Consumers on both coasts of Canada liked its flavor, and western tasters especially liked its texture.14Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Evaluation of hedonic scores and R-indices for visual, flavour and texture preferences of apple cultivars by British Columbian and Nova Scotian consumers
Where the Silken Apple Came From
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s breeding program at Summerland, BC, introduced Silken in 1997.15Acta Horticulturae. ‘Silken’, ‘Creston’ and ‘Chinook’: Three New Apples from Canada It was released alongside two other new apples, Creston and Chinook.16Acta Horticulturae. ‘Silken’, ‘Creston’ and ‘Chinook’: Three New Apples from Canada Breeders described it as a new early-ripening variety with a unique creamy skin.17Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Silken apple Trials across Canada found it performed well, though fruit ran smaller in the east.18Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Regional differences in performance of Canadian-bred apple cultivars and implications for breeding
“Bred” here means breeders crossed two parent apple varieties on purpose and then grew thousands of seedlings from the seeds. Each seedling is a surprise, so they keep only the few that show good flavor, texture and tree growth. An apple seed doesn’t grow true, so every Silken tree is grafted from the original selection, and all of them are genetically identical. This is traditional cross-breeding, the same kind of pollination that happens naturally between apple trees, not genetic engineering.
You rarely see it in stores because big chains favor apples that store for months. Look at orchards, farm stands and specialty grocers in late summer.
Best Ways to Use Silken Apples
Its sweet, honeyed taste shows best eaten raw, out of hand.19Specialty Produce. Silken Apples Slices suit cheese plates with nuts and dips, and chopped pieces fit green or fruit salads.20Specialty Produce. Silken Apples Whole apples can be dipped in caramel.21Specialty Produce. Silken Apples Sharp cheddar or blue cheese contrasts nicely with its mildness.
Cut slices brown quickly. Toss them in a little lemon or lime juice, which slows browning and adds a touch of tartness. For a cheese plate, cut the apples close to serving time so they look their palest and freshest. If you must cut ahead, store the pieces sealed in the fridge and use them within about a day.
It can also be cooked into applesauce or pressed into juice and cider.22Specialty Produce. Silken Apples Slices go well with roasted meats and chopped apple in stuffing.23Specialty Produce. Silken Apples Its sweetness suits tarts, turnovers, muffins, biscuits and cobblers,24Specialty Produce. Silken Apples and cinnamon and honey echo its honeyed taste.
Spend your freshest, crispest apples on eating raw, where texture and honeyed taste are the whole point. Apples that have sat a few weeks and gone slightly soft are well suited to sauce or muffins. Silken sauce is naturally sweet, so taste it before adding any sugar; you may need little or none. In pies, mix it with a tarter apple or add lemon juice.
When Silken Apples Are in Season
Silken ripens early, in the same season as McIntosh.25Canadian Journal of Plant Science. Silken apple In one northeastern US orchard it ripened in the second week of September.26Fruit Notes. Consumer Evaluation of New, Antique, and Little Known Apple Varieties It has a very narrow picking window,27Acta Horticulturae. What Is a Silken Apple? Flavor, Origin, and Uses so ask your local orchard when it expects them and go early.
Timing varies by place and by year, so a date from one orchard won’t match yours. Your local grower’s estimate is the best guide, and many orchards post updates on harvest progress.
At a U-pick orchard, lift the apple and give it a gentle twist; ripe fruit releases easily while unripe fruit holds on. Taste one before filling a bag to check the sweetness is there. Place the apples in the bag rather than tossing them, since bruises shorten their short storage life.
How Long Silken Apples Keep
Silken has naturally poor storage potential compared with long-keeping apples.28Acta Horticulturae. What Is a Silken Apple? Flavor, Origin, and Uses Growers in cold storage get about 10 weeks before quality fades.29New York Fruit Quarterly. Apple Cultivars: A Geneva Perspective That means apples bought months after harvest are rare and may be soft. At home, whole, unwashed apples keep 4 to 6 weeks in the fridge crisper drawer.30specialtyproduce.com. Silken Apples
A few habits shorten that time. Apples left on the counter soften within days, so move them to the fridge soon after buying. Washing before storage adds moisture that invites rot, so wash only just before eating. One bruised apple speeds spoilage in its neighbors, so pull damaged fruit out. A loose plastic bag in the crisper keeps moisture in and helps prevent shriveling.
Growing a Silken Apple Tree
The tree is vigorous with a spreading shape.31Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.. Silken Apple Tree (Bareroot) It starts bearing fruit young.32Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.. Silken Apple Tree (Bareroot) It also flowers early and may wake from winter dormancy sooner than other apples.33Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.. Silken Apple Tree (Bareroot) In frost-prone spots, a late spring frost could damage the blossoms. Avoid low frost pockets, cover small trees on frosty bloom nights, and expect lighter crops after a bad spring frost.
It needs a pollinator, a different apple variety blooming at the same time.34Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.. Silken Apple Tree (Bareroot) Plant a second early-blooming apple or crabapple nearby. Ask the nursery which partners bloom early enough to overlap with Silken. A neighbor’s apple or crabapple within a short distance may be enough, so look around before buying a second tree.
The spreading shape needs room, so give it space or ask the nursery about a dwarfing rootstock to keep it smaller. Choose a spot with full sun and well-drained soil.