Want your apples to keep through the winter, without transferring rot or mould from one to the other? There’s furniture for that! NO, not this:

Apple Killing Device

This!

Fruit Closet, with Drawers

What a beautiful thing! Why would a house be built without it? Lockable, too, just like a wall safe! Only for the most precious things.

And what might you put in it? Aha!

Belle de Boskoop

It’ll take some time to ripen up in its closet. Mmmm. Yes, you’re allowed to peek.

Look, I’ll level with you. If you’re going to make this:

Source

… you’re going to need a boskoop. Older recipes point out that if you can’t get one, “Don’t Bother.” It’s really as simple as that. Newer recipes, such as the one above, suggest you might substitute with an Elstar. They are being kind.

Elstar Source

A fine apple in its own right, but is it a Boskoop? No, it is not.

Now, a Boskoop is a Belgian apple. One German nickname for it is Boskopf, which is kind of a pun on “Block Head”, because, well, it does taste like a block of wood saturated in honey. But when you cook it? Oh my. And where are you going to get one? Easy.

A Fruit Promenade!

Imagine that leading up to your front door, eh! You have to love the Swiss (it’s a Swiss image from the 1950s) for the boldness of suggesting a family might grow their own apples for spiritual, practical and aesthetic pleasure. Darn rights.

The Garden Fruit Tree, by Ernst Meier