The Jewish New Year 2022 will begin on Sunday evening, September 25. Eating apples dipped in honey on New Year's Day is a tradition that symbolizes the sweetness of the coming year.
Apples are one of the most popular fruits in Israel, with many apple plantations in the Golan Heights and can be bought at any walk into the fruit area of a supermarket.
The most popular apple varieties in Israel are Pink Girl, Jonathan, Grandma Smith, and Golden Crown.
Pink Girl
The peel is pink in color, with a green texture, and the taste is sweet and sour, which is very suitable as a filling, and the taste will be sweeter after baking.
Jonathan
Apple varieties migrated from the United States are produced in northern Israel, along the Hura River Valley.
Jonathan Apples gets its name in two ways, one is that in the 1820s, a man named Jonathan Hasbrook discovered a new apple variety on a farm in New York, USA, and he gave the apple to the president of the local horticultural association, who declared the apple variety "Jonathan Apple."
There is also a legend that a woman named Rachel Higley collected some apple seeds from an cider distillery in Connecticut, USA. In 1804, when she moved to Ohio, USA, she planted apple seeds, and when the apples were harvested, she named them after her husband Jonathan, which has been used ever since.
Jonathan apples are sweet and sour and suitable for raw eating.
Granny Smith
The variety, named after Ann Mary Smith, a famous horticulturist who immigrated to Australia from England, was the first to find hybrid apples in her garden. This apple has a green peel and a slightly sour taste, making it ideal for baking and salads. Some phenolic compounds in the pulp of apples react with air, and the color of the pulp becomes darker after oxidation, and the longer the oxidation time, the darker the color. The biggest feature of "Grandma Smith" is that the cut apples will not change color even if they are stored for a long time.
Golden Crown Apple (Golden Delicious Chinese also known as Yellow Banana Apple)
Native to the United States, it is one of the most common apple varieties in the world and is mainly grown in the Hura Valley region of northern Israel. The peel is golden yellow and the fruit is juicy. This apple is very suitable for processing into apple juice and has a very sweet taste.
Pink Girl Apple sells for 15.9 shekels (about RMB 31.8) per kilogram
Golden Crown Apples sell for 9.9 shekels per kilogram (about RMB 19.8)