I had my parents over tonight and we had an apple tasting for desert. My father is retired and has more time (and fewer trees), so he thins and bags them and as a result they are much larger than mine. He also installed an electric fence and was using cups of ammonia (refreshed nightly) to keep the animals away. 3 of the biggest apples (the bottom row in the pic) are from him.
Sansa (13-14 brix)- Very sweet, crisp and juicy, with bright white flesh and a bit of rustteting. Favorite of my older daughter and father and probably my 2nd favorite. And this is even without thinning them any, so the tree was overburdened with small apples. I should probably graft another tree of it, as they seem to be good over a decently long period, as they were sweet, even 2 weeks ago. People at work really liked this one ~1.5 weeks ago. (B9 from Grandpa’s Orchard in fall 2012, by me. Medium-small size tree, heavy crop load)
Honecrisp (12-15 brix)- Bigger range than most apples. The sweet parts were sweet/tangy, with other parts more tangy/acid. Lots of juice, with typical Honeycrisp texture and crunch. I give this one the nod as my favorite and the kids liked it a lot, with it being above average for my dad and not to my mom’s tastes. Honeycrisp trees don’t get that big anyway and I made the mistake of planting mine on M27 rootstock, so it is very small, even after 6 years. There were about 8-10 apples on the tree, but animals ate a lot off early, so there were only 3 when I picked it today. (M27 from Raintree in 2012 by me, tiny tree)
Initial (12-12.5 brix) - Reactions ranged from “not bad” to “excellent”. It had a mildly sweet flavor, and was fairly crisp. I put it more in the “not bad” area, but it was my father’s 2nd favorite and the top apple for my mom. My oldest daughter didn’t like it much. (M7 from Cummins in 2011, by dad. Large tree).
Priscilla (11-12.5)- A very interesting flavor. “It doesn’t taste like apple, but I like it…” I think it is supposed to have a hint of anise, but I don’t detect any licorice flavor. It is crunchy, firm, and mildly juicy. Full, but not overpowering flavor. (B9 from Cummins in 2011, by me. Med-lg tree, with med-heavy load)
William’s Pride (11-12.5 brix)- My father picked this around 8/10 and kept it in the fridge for 2.5 weeks (other apples were all picked within a couple days of the tasting). I think WP is near the end of it’s storage, as it was getting softer and lost a bit of crunch. Still a good flavor and it does have a decently long season. The last of my WP are ripe now and getting destroyed by the wasps. (G11/MM111 interstem from Cummins in 2011, by dad)
Red Boskoop (14.5-16 brix)- These started dropping about a week ago, even though Raintree says that they ripen in late October. I recall a lot dropping early in past years, but I think this is the first time that a decent number are still hanging on. Edit- Maybe more have stuck until now because it has been a bit wetter this year and M27 needs more irrigation than I give it. Even though they have the highest brix (surprising, given how overloaded the tree is), they are still very sharp. I liked them better than Freedom, but I think they will be much better after a few weeks or a month of storage. My mom speculated that this would be a great pie apple. (M27 from Raintree, planted 2011 by me, medium tree (very large for a M27), heavy crop)
Freedom (10.5-11 brix)- Edible, but not that impressive. Not a ton of sugar, but the flavor wasn’t actually bad. Large celled (and just plain large) apple which reminds me of Mac or Cortland. I’m not really a fan of this type of apple, so this was the lowest ranking for me. There is still green on the skin, but my father said that when he waited for the green to turn yellow, they got soft. (G11 from Cummins in 2011, by dad)