They're quintessentially New England apples, thin-skinned, bullet-hard, and tart.

But here under the apple tree
I loved and watched and pruned
With gnarled hands
In the long, long years;
Here under the roots of this northern-spy
To move in the chemic change and circle of life,
Into the soil and into the flesh of the tree,
And into the living epitaphs
Of redder apples!

--Edgar Lee Masters

Nine