What fruits did you eat today?

Opal has a distinct aroma that I like on top of its taste and crunchiness.

Some may not like that kind of aroma.

I sampled my first ā€˜Pageā€™ mandarin of the season this morning. Killer mimosas for Thanksgiving!! Click-Click!! :champagne:

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Early Pink Lady (Maslin cultivar) from Willow Drive Nursery (WA) as grown at Catoctin Mountain Orchard (Md).

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I have been eating Hachiya and Fuyu persimmons from the store. Although they donā€™t have seeds and are much bigger, I am finding I am preferring Yates and Osage American persimmons to these two varieties. The Americans I had back in Sept seemed richer in flavor and had more sugar. But the two kaki varieties are much juicier. They are all ripened to the about the same softness.

I am definitely stoked to get some persimmons growing. Right now I have seedlings from Burnt Ridge, and saved the seeds from the Yates I got in Sept.

Eating Hachias too. I prefer them over Fuyu. When really ripe, itā€™s like eating custard with a spoon.

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Man all those apples in various posts look great, thanks all for sharing photos.

Ate the Pacific Rose from Walmart tonight. Was pretty bland, had a crunch, not very juicy. Wasnā€™t one I would purchase again.

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@subdood_ky_z6b Did you find WineCrisp this fall?

I had a WineCrisp apple that had some time to age in the fridge for about 4 weeks. It is a decent apple, but Iā€™m not terribly impressed. When you chew down the juice has good standard apple flavor, but it goes quickly. CrimsonCrisp has more flavor. I mention CrimsonCrisp because those are also PRI apples and have the same firm character and red color. I have never had a GoldRush so I canā€™t compare to it. In its season, SunCrisp hands down wallops WineCrisp in flavor. Suncrisp are really phenomenal here this year. Though I do suspect WineCrisp will store longer.

I still have 3 or 4 WineCrisp, so I will check back on its flavor. I did have one earlier, but I forgot how it compared.

Thanks Drew, for the update.

Yes, we found some Winecrisp at the orchard. I agree with your assessment on the WC, a nicely flavored crunchy apple, but not great. Kind of reminded me of a crisper version of a Cortland. But I think it will be a solid apple for our orchard. I do have to say it is a beautiful colored fruit.

I agree about the Suncrisp, it was one of my favorites from the orchard. Good balance of sweet/tart, with a banana or mango undertone, very unique. Iā€™m thinking of adding this variety next year.

They grew CrimsonCrisp there as well, but were out of them when we got there for our latest visit.

The Goldrush Iā€™ve had so far are so intensely tart and sweet, theyā€™re a bit much for me, but my wife loves them. Hopefully storage will mellow out some of the tang. Weā€™re hoping to get some more of these and some other varieties from the orchard for winter storage, before they close in a couple weeks.

Magness pear with a pretty red cheek.

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About the same report for me this year on WineCrisp, had some start falling off the tree in October that were part green and they were hardly edible. The apples that I picked a few weeks ago that were more fully red and ripened were pretty good after a couple of weeks in the fridge but not near the Goldrush category. I read somewhere that WineCrisp was better for processing than fresh eating wish might be right, it does seem to be a easy to grow variety, very little bug damage or rot but I am probably going regraft my WineCrisp to another Goldrush tree.

I also grow Crimson Crisp which ripened around mid September. We enjoyed the nice, very crisp flavor right off the tree, the apples were very clean, pretty much like grocery store perfect. One of my goals to is have an orchard where friends and family can enjoy the experience of picking and eating apples right off the tree and Crimson Crisp is great for that.

I had a Suncrisp die 2 years ago from fireblight before I could ever get a taste but all the rave reviews on the forum have convinced me to give it another shot. Got one one order from Cummins on G-41 that just got delivered today. Got a 4 day weekend to plant my new trees, yippie! Now if we could only get some rain!

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Did you eat it yet or are you ripening it still

Itā€™s in my belly.

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Maybe I will have one in a few years from my tree

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Finally ate my Walmart Ambrosia, very forgettable. Bland no real flavor not sure I would purchase more.

Now many of you may say you canā€™t believe Iā€™ve never tried these, but rural Tennessee/Kentucky just doesnā€™t get a wide variety of fruits like more urbanized areas. So I was very excited to see rambutans for the first time ever- in Walmart of all places! I had always wanted to try these. THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!! :slight_smile: I I love these things.

For those who also havenā€™t tried (or even seen) rambutans, they look like a purple sea urchin mated with a chestnut, but donā€™t let that scare you off. They are amazing. You remove the outer spines first. In spite of their menacing look, the spines/spikes are actually soft and they are attached to a thick skin that covers the fruit, so its pretty easy to just peel back the spines along with the skin to expose the clear fruit that is inside and surrounds a single seed in the center of the fruit. You can see all of this in the photo- it shows one that Iā€™ve opened. I have no idea how to describe the taste of the fruit, and invite others here to try and do that. Itā€™s quite sweet, light, refreshing- just very good to eat. The texture is a lot like e a peeled grape. Overall, these are great little fruits! If u havenā€™t done soā€¦TRY THESE!!! You wonā€™t be disappointed.
If, like me, youā€™ve been curious to examine and taste rambutans now may be your chance to try them. They had them at Walmart where I live and where my parents live (several hours away) so they may be in your store too. Better still, in both cases they have been on display right beside Tamarind- both from the same supplier (ā€œFriedasā€) Iā€™m not a Walmart fan but in this case its worth going. They also had Fuyu persimmons for the first time Iā€™ve seen in Walmart.

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Kevin,
Glad you like rambutans. The popular ones have green " hair" and is free stone.

By the time it arrives to US market, the outside looked blackish and unappealing. As long as the skin is intact, no oozing of foul or sour smell, the fruit is good.

The sign said 30 Baht (about 90 cent) per kilogram.

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Hopefully you will get a chance to try mangosteen. It is excellent.

To eat, you cut around the center and open it up. Flesh is creamy white. Not as sweet as longan or rambutans but it has a good balance of sweet and sour, very refreshing.

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Tippy- No kidding, I was going to e-mail you later tonight and ask you if you ate a lot of these when you were growing up! I know they are very common in that part of the world, so I figured you had eaten them. That photo of the huge pile of them is just AWESOME!!! Iā€™d say that proves beyond any doubt how popular they are over there. If the vendor had that many of them, he must of known that lots of people would be buying a whole lot of them.

Now you definitely have me wanting to try mangosteen! They are very interesting looking.