First year with any apples from my yard. Tried storing 2 types. Liberty and Macfree. Will have to try in ziplocks next year because both apples took up refrigerator “flavors”. Ate (well sliced, tasted and sent to the compost) today apples that were picked Oct 11. Both had gone quite soft, no acid, off flavors. Probably not a real test given poor storage conditions. But that is my 2 cents for this year.
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Looks good, Scott, is that a pic after your first piece? Looks like my sample size! It looks like the pie has a cheese topping, but I’m pretty sure it’s not that?
Did your wife have to add much sugar to it? How is the texture of Goldrush after cooking it in this pie? We have a couple dozen GR I picked off trees, I’m hoping to try some in a pie soon.
My wife made an apple crisp with some of the Suncrisp we picked at the orchard back in Oct, it was very good. But, as I was just telling her, a pie to me is a better way to judge a particular fruit.
I used to work in an orchard with several 100 year old Golden Delicious trees and a recently planted one. The old trees produced much sweeter apples that ripened over a week later and often produced sound fruit even though the trees were never sprayed. The modern version produced fruit with consistently smooth skin (no russet, ever) but tepid flavor and without the same plum curculio resistance. .
My customers tend to be very fond of older strains of yellow delicious although, for some reason, I only find its low-acid taste appealing when it comes with a russet skin.
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There was a PYO orchard we used to visit with some ancient GD trees. Nobody was interested in the GD and the trees were loaded. They were the best apples in the whole place by far. The fruits were not russeted but they were smaller and more rough-skinned than the modern ones.
@subdood_ky_z6b I’m not sure exactly what is in the pie but my wife did mention it had cheese in it. I think its some kind of cheese custard filling. Its a nice variation on the standard apple pie. The crust was even more unusual, it was whole quinoa. It was also good. The apples came out very well, for me the perfect pie, whole pieces but not crunchy at all.
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I don’t know if this year was typical, but our Golden Delicious were heavily russeted, with most apples being 1/3 to 1/2 russeted. The most russeted ones quickly became my favorites, for the texture and taste imparted. From what I’ve read–recall that I’m new at this–older strains had a lot of russeting. Who knows where the previous homeowner got this tree some 20 years ago.
Lots of the pear russeting I got this year were Frost rings. Anyone else experience the same? It heavily russetted some fruit that is normally completely smooth. I have also noticed some trees russet more with age and fruit quality goes up but are the same type of fruit. Younger trees in my experience produce inferior fruit to older trees. I suspect they pull better nutrients due to better root systems. I read a study once though I can’t recall from who that stated slightly damaged fruit produces higher quality fruit.
A few of my pears had frost rings. I only noticed the rings on my first to bloom Orient and only a few of these were affected.
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I did not notice difference on my A pears comparing to prevoius years.
Harrow Sweet definitely had more russet this year. I thought it was because of the drought and that they were bagged.
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When I moved to this property my MIL had put in 5 standard apples of the commonest (read: least appealing) varieties: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Granny Smith and ???. I’ve discovered that the Golden Delicious are far superior to what can be had at the store and are good off the tree if somewhat one-dimensional, but excellent after a month in storage (I’m beginning to appreciate why it has been used so much in modern apple breeding). I ate the last of the shriveled ones in February from the crisper (fairly shriveled and texture softening, but flavor was still quite good). I’ll look forward to having Goldrush, Winecrisp, Golden Russet, etc in a few years. The unique flavor of the Macs is growing on me, but not enough to eat very many. Maybe in a few years, after she’s tasted my (hopefully) superior varieties I can topwork the Red Del and Mac (the Granny is my frankentree with 35+ varieties so far).
No apple storing here, but i pulled out a bunch of Seckel pears (out of a converted chest freezer) and they look good…a couple of rotten ones in the bunch. Some had gone a little soft, but overall a success so far. I did keep the temp on the cold side (30F-32F)…
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Most of my Luscious pears had frost rings. Nevertheless, the critters, probably coons, judging by the broken branches, completely cleaned out the heavily-laden tree when we left town for four days for a wedding.
Northwoodswis4,
That’s terrible! Had them break the top out of a small tree I had once. I leave them pears on the ground now and they stay out of my trees. They eat their fill on blackberries every year.
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aluminum flashing stapled securely to trunks absolutely excludes coons from climbing into trees. 32" length starting a foot above ground should make working around baffle impossible even for dog sized tom coon- those little bears are the most destructive to branches, of course.
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I just ate two more apples from storage…
Reine des Reinettes - This is an excellent storage apple, it still could take a few more months. The flavor has mellowed into a very good sweet and aromatic taste. I keep finding more things to like about this apple.
Pomme Gris - This sample was a bit beyond the prime, starting to get a bit mealy. Stick to the year of harvest on this one.
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Ate a Goldrush and an Enterprise from storage today.
The Goldrush was a bit wrinkly, but the flavor was excellent. It wasn’t mealy (which I hate) at all, but instead kind of chewy. Hard to describe that texture, but very pleasant.
The Enterprise was crisp, juicy, and sweet. Perhaps a slightly more complex flavor than when first picked. The skin is still too thick. Maybe that skin is why it stores so well. It looked and tasted like it would have been good for several more months.
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I had some GoldRush from storage, I had them stored in quart bags. They are still surprisingly crisp, and no wrinkles. The texture is a bit of the chewy you mention Hal, not at all an unpleasant chewy. They are going to be good for a couple months.
A Reine des Reinettes was about exactly at its peak, they should be good through Feb at least.
If an apple can be both chewy and crisp, my Goldrush were. I think I’m suffering from a vocabulary shortage, as I just can’t describe the texture. Maybe chewy and “breaking flesh,” if that isn’t a contradiction
It looks like custard
It tasted like it too… she was trying out a new recipe. I prefer the regular kind but it was good for something different.
Finally, I remembered to take a bucket of Gold Rush stored in an unfinished part of the basement. Temp in that area has been in the 40. I could not find a lid of the bucket so I just covered it with a plastic bag tied tightly with string.
Today, 3/12/19. Got apples out. Most turned from pale green to varying shades of yellow. Of 45, about 5 have wrinkled skin. I believed if I stored them in tight container, there would be no wrinkles.
They still had some crunchy texture. Taste was mellow and on a sweet side. Detected no tartness. Mine were picked in late Nov, not ripe. Seeds were only medium brown. Still, they tasted better than average store bought apples. They would have tasted better if they were closer to ripen when picked.
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