Hi,
I’m really curious about whether to add Viking apple to my collection as a nice summer apple. I can find very little information on it, and only the few comments I have read raved about it. Has anyone tried it? Is it a crisp apple or is the flesh more soft? And is it tart (which I like)? Curious if it’s a must have or not like the few reviews I’ve read. Would really like to know before my order ships next month. I would rather pass if it’s rather ordinary and just meh.
Thanks!!
I was undecided about it, too, for similar reasons. I finally decided to graft it last year, and it’s growing well, but I likely won’t get a sample until next season. I’m looking forward to more informed and helpful replies on this.
Hardly soon enough to be helpful to the original poster, but my first harvest of Viking is coming in and I’m in a position to say more about it now. It superficially resembles Williams’ Pride here, though it’s darker and a couple of weeks later. The flesh is white with a little red stain under the skin, reasonably crisp (though not breaking) when picked early enough, and has a lovely sweet/tart flavor. It’s highly aromatic, even more so than WP. My guess is that it would be on the soft side when fully ripe, and I’ll let one stay on the tree and find out. So far, though, mine are dropping on their own before reaching that stage.
I like it, and I’m declaring it a keeper.
I believe Steven reviewed it on his YouTube channel (Skillcult).
I found a fully ripe example, and it was indeed quite soft. I prefer them picked a bit earlier for fresh eating, but the ripe ones would likely make good sauce.
The orchard I worked at while in college and also the first year after graduating grew some Vikings (Southern Wisconsin). They had a pink skin color and ripened in late July/early August. The first year I had them they were great to eat fresh (a little tart) and wonderful for a summer apple pie. The following year the crop was a disaster as they were all rotten around the core although the outside of the apple looked perfectly fine. The orchard owner told me this sometimes happened with this variety. Not sure if the summer heat is the issue or that they really needed to watch just when they were ripe to pick. He normally picked his apples firmer than I preferred on all varieties so he knew his stuff about growing apples (3 generation to run the family orchard).
A few orchards in SW WI still offer this variety but it seems mighty hard to come by these days.