Alps Otome, a Japanese cultivar. An OP seedling of Fuji. The pollen parent is an unknown crab.
At its largest, this is not a large apple, but mine are very small because my graft is small.
The flavor is superb. Crispy and a bit tart fresh off the tree, it mellows into a traditional apple flavor and texture, which makes it taste more like an old English cultivar.
Look like a large crab apple😄
Yes, but better tasting.
A friend gave me the scionwood of Suntan. Prior to that, I did not know about it.
It is a late apple. First one dropped today. It has coarse skin like a russeted apple.
Cummins sings high praises of it. This is what Cummins said about Suntan.
Last apple hanging in the orchard. On one branch of tree with four varieties.
Piel de Sapa (Toadskin), a Spanish cider apple. A friend who obtained it because of its name gave me an extra stick of scionwood. First year fruiting (two apples). Picked the first one a week and a half ago.Wow, all done already? I still have several hanging on. Crunch A Bunch, Sundance, Suntan, A. Golden Russet, Victoria and Black Limbertwig, Orin, my two Gold Rush, etc. They are late apples and very late this year.
My Suntan on the tree. It is not solid red. It is more orangey and the color is not evenly distributed.
Picked Golden Russet last week. Gold Rush tree hasn’t fruited yet. I was surprised though when several local orchards announced already that they were closing for the season, including Indian Creek, the retail and pick-your-own component of Cummins Nursery.
Gold Rush is very late. This is an off year so only two GR apples. It will have a good production next year as it has a serious biennial tendency. I will graft most of the tree to other varieties. GR doesn’t ripen in time for me mostof the time though it gets 8 hours of sun in the summer. My other apples don’t get that much sun but ripen well.
That is a handsome press. Who is the manufacturer?
Pleasant Hill
Probably cheaper and better to build your own - some good YouTube videos on rack and cloth presses. But with two little ones and a long to-do list hard to fit it in.
I was surprised by that too, and even more surprised when Indian Creek said see you in June.
What are its tasting notes?
I do not have refined taste buds and am not good at describing taste of fruit. I can tell if I like it or not.
We tried Suntan today. All 3 of us liked it. The texture was firm but not crunchy like Honey Crisp. It tasted good but was on a tarter side. My daughter said “It tasted like apple”. That was a high praise for a picker eater like her. I could see why she said that. When I cut up the apple, it had nice aroma.
What I found weird was that the apple had only 2 seeds, one regular, the other was flat as if it had nothing inside. It was the first apple I ate that had only 2 seeds.
@HighandDry Is it common for Suntan to have few seeds?
I harvested several apples yesterday. Varieties I grow are what I like. They are either sweet, balanced (sweet/tart) or a bit on a tart side but has other features I like such as sweetness undertone, nice aroma, etc.
This is a down year as several varieties decided to go biennial. I am happy to get new varieties like RL Calypso, Pixie Crunch, Razor Russet, Roxbury Russet to try.
Any favorite there for fresh eating? I have about five of those varieties just reaching bearing size.
Wow, Tippy! What a fabulous collection and such work keeping them all labeled properly. That is really hard to do!!!
Do you like sweet, more tart or balanced apples?
All of mine are for fresh eating. Although Calville Blanc is known to be an excellent cooking apple, well- ripened Calville Blanc is very good for fresh eating.
Both taste and texture is important to me. I usually prefer crunchy over tender texture. Russeted apples add to nice texture, too.
I like apples on a sweet side so of this batch, Orin and Baker’s Delight, are my pick. I also like Frostbite and Pink Parfait but both took this year off.
Some of my apples do not produce with consistent quality because of excessive rain or a prolonged dry spell, etc. Honey Crisp and Hoople’s Antique Gold fit that category. Excellent one year, and pedestrian another year, depending on a growing condition.
Most of mine have a biennialing tendency. The ones that have produced every year are Pink Lady, Orin and Golden Russet.
Mrs. G.,
I lined them up in an alphabetical order so it is easy to remember. 
