Mac you rarely see cooking apples in the shops nowadays, mores the pity. I like a nice russet apple, it might not have the prettiest skin but they taste wonderful. We have some blackberries macerating in rioja for the creme du mur liquor, when finished it will be bottled and put away for Christmas pressie's keeping a couple back for medicinal purposes (that what I'm telling myself). We will have a few apples this year but nowhere near last year's crop but will mix with some crab apples to make chilli jelly in the Autumn. Enjoy your bounty Mac, free definitely has a taste of its own.