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Artic Mist
A delicious sweet nectarine bought at Costco. Flavor and sweetness improves as it softens. It’s hard to get good nectarines in NY. This is the best one I’ve eaten. I was going to sprout some seeds but then I realized it was a September nectarine in California so would be very late, maybe too late in NY.
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Well, I pulled one of the Winecrisp apples that we picked last week out of the fridge. Had an interest in this variety as it’s one we are growing.
It is a large-ish, attractive apple, mostly dark red, with some splotches of green and yellow. Had a soft spot on it, so thought it’d be a good time to try it.
It was very firm, prob the most of all the ones we have had so far. Turns out the soft spot was because of some water core. The flavor was pretty sweet, with very little tartness. So, the opposite of most of the apples we’ve had. Not much other flavors to mention, both me and the Mrs said it was good, but not great.
We still haven’t tried the Grimes Golden or Gold Del’s, waiting on those to ripen up a bit.
I grew Arctic Mist and Arctic Snow for a number of yrs in my greenhouse. Mist had considerable issues with rot. Arctic Snow is good even when eaten hard.
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Emerald Beaut Plumcot I think. From a local Italian market. Whatever it was, it’s the best pluot/plumcot I’ve had this season: crunchy, syrupy, and very sweet.
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The California commercial growers know how to grow and spray them so they look perfect and they certainly are taste. Late maturity and possible rot problems is enough for me to not attempt growing Mist in NY but I will be looking for them in the stores again next September.
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I picked about 6 pounds of assorted paw paws at Red Fern Farm in SE Iowa near Wapello today. Taylor, Taytwo, Overleese, Potomac, and found one NC-1 as well as a few seedlings. The ones that are soft are excellent, like softer than a peach and leaves dents when you pick them soft. I also found one that got caught in a crook of a branch and was shaded but was quite brown, but didn’t get baked by the sun today. Bleck! Burnt carmel! Not my thing, but I could maybe see other people liking those.
They also had some Yates (background) and Osage (foreground) persimmons ripe. Boy those things are like fruit candy. It is hard to eat more than one or two at a time.
It was a productive day. I also picked about 2/3 of my Liberty crop. 5 lbs so far. And painted parts of our screened in porch.
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Congrats! I love a good Discovery. Still waiting on a crop here, hopefully next year. Have you ever eaten a Chinook apple? I had one up in B.C. and haven’t seen them in the states yet. It is pretty regulated as even the folks on Salt Spring can’t sell trees although they grow it.
I never had Chinook, funny about the regulations though. I looked it up on the Canadian Govt plant breeders site and it is no longer under protection. They applied in 1997 but surrendered the rights in Sept. 2005. Salt Spring may have signed a separate contract with the breeder.
I also ate Honey Gold we had 5 ripen and they were pretty good. Wynoochee Early was another winner, I did not get to taste this one, but my son and grandkids thought it was wonderful. Nothing so far has outdone the Discovery though. I wonder if the intense flavour can be attributed to growing conditions, most apple sites don’t rate it very high, but I would.
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Our local Kroger’s grocery had a special on Honeycrisp and SweeTango apples. Both varieties were $1.99/lb. I had had enough HC since we got our fill from the orchard, but I wanted to try a ST. It is another UMinn offering that has both HC and Zestar as parents, so I was intrigued. We also had tried some Zestar’s from the orchard, and really liked them, so I figured this ST ought to be worth a try. Here are a few pics:
As you can see, it is an attractive apple, mostly red, but with some gold/yellow mixed in, with some prominently visible lenticels. In the second picture, the one on the right almost looks like a big strawberry. At a certain angle, the apple kind of has the look and shape of a Red Delicious. But that’s where the similarity ends.
True to its name it is a very sweet apple, with a bit of acid, but not much. It is very crunchy like a Honeycrisp, and does not brown hardly at all after slicing. The sweetness was a bit much, seemed to have the taste of bubblegum, if that makes sense. To me it tastes like a sweeter version of a Zestar. But, it is still a very flavorful apple, and I’d recommend trying one if you haven’t before.
If we didn’t have so many other varieties already I might consider picking some more of these up. I don’t think I’ve seen these at any store before, and I don’t know if the variety is being sold by any nursery yet.
I also are a ST apple today. I like them. I still think a good HC is better.
I went to a new Asian market in town. It’s small and the owners are still putting their inventory together. I was hoping to find fresh Adrian fruit but to my disappointment nothing. I found some candy I bought just to try. These gummies have a very strong lychee flavor. They also has a lot of popsicles from the Philippines and Thailand. Had to laugh when they showed me durian popsicles. Of course I passed.
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Just ate a 19 brix Goldrush apple. Very nice sweet/tart, mostly sweet, and crisp. It’s the best apple I’ve grown since leaving Amarillo nearly 20 yrs ago.
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Goldrush is a great apple. I prefer them fully tree ripened rather than out of storage. I like the intense flavor, they stay good in storage but mellow some
I bought 30lbs of Honeycrisp for $24 …they were #2’s with a mixed bag of small fruit and big fruit. All local stuff from SE MN. Also bought some sweet 16…that is also a very good apple.
Had a bag of white nectarines from Sam’s Club…excellent. Needed one more nectarine fix before winter.
I ate a few prickly pears after dinner. I’m a big fan of these and feel like they fly under the radar a bit. Or maybe people don’t like them because of the hard seeds. But the flavor is nice, if subtle. Like raspberries and watermelon. @MuddyMess_8a convinced me to try growing these up here in zone 6 (I didn’t grow the ones in the picture), and so this will be my first winter trialling six varieties that supposedly can survive -15 or so. They’ll get no protection. Because as Wordsworth said:
“Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be…”
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I grow hardy cactus here myself, they are very winter hardy, but not for the fruit. I hate even touching it. Not sure if it’s edible? Probably. So what cultivars are you growing? Where did you get them? I may try too! How do you clean them? Well a good way to remove spines. I only know all the bad ways. My wife hates the things.
Drew,
I pick the petals with salad tongs and then burn the thorns off over the propane stove flame. I stir fry them like peppers in fajitas. They are a little slimy like okra which I like.
OK thanks for the info!
I’ve got Oklahoma Pancake, Engelman’s, Wood’s, Mesa Sky, Paradox Form, and Brilliant Orange. I ordered them from ColdHardyCactus.com. I was happy with the service and price. Large selection too.
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Thanks excellent info. Yes I have plants from there, a good place to order. I lost one, was kinda bummed. I want many more plants there myself.