One of the lovely and unexpected bennies of our recent trip through Oregon was the fact that it's apple-picking time, and we were in the part of Oregon that grows huge quantities of apples. Other things too, mind you, but apples are the big thing, and there are a lot of festivals at this time of year celebrating them. There's actually an established drive around the valley up and behind Mt. Hood (on the Columbia River) that will take the apple tourist past all kinds of fun stops--they call it the 'Fruit Loop'.
Anyway, we picked up two or three of any apple we'd never had before that promised to be crisp, and I actually got to buy some of the apples beloved from my childhood--Pippins and Winesaps--that have disappeared from modern supermarkets.
All of them were great, but the standout is the one I least expected as I'm not generally a fan of yellow apples--the Aurora Gold. They're a larger apple of a uniform pale yellow color. No green or red blushes, and no shine like a Yellow delicious, just a pure powdery creamy pale yellow. Inside, they're a richer warm shade of the skin color. Super crunchy in texture with a fantastic flavor that's intensely tangy and sweet. If you see them, try one!