belle fille

Belle Fille is a French cider apple we found at the USDA collection in Geneva (PI 162709). It doesn’t appear in Bore and Fleckinger or in Copas. An UK website includes this write up about what may the same apple: "Belle-Fille Normande is an old apple variety from Normandy, France of unknown origin dating back to the late 18th Century or earlier. Grown in the Pays de Caux near Rouen in the 19th Century… Good for cider.”

Our fruit is 2-2 1/4", roundish (slightly conic), green with a brownish-olive-green-stripy blush, slightly angular with a very long medium-thick stem and a big, dark brown, russet cavity splash. On the bag of fruit we collected in Geneva in 2016 I wrote "excellent" Not juicy, spongy, sweet on the first bite, bitter on the second bite, browning fast, mostly just bitter, not acidic, extremely high in sugar 23 brix; SG 1.098. We obtained our scionwood from the USDA. Currently growing at Super Chilly Farm.