My horse would love these as well. She always looks forward to apple season and the scraps of apples when I use them for cooking. Of course she gets plenty of whole apples as well.
1 Like
I’ve probably said it before, but your photos are absolutely top tier.
MN 1734 looks and sounds really interesting. Probably no chance we have it in Canada…
If you dont mind.. can you expand on this a tad more?
Most all reviews regurgitate that it is a small dry hard apple that is sweet and for cider.
I am not sure that there are many if any reviews of how it tastes off the tree nor after storage which it says it stores all winter long.
Super interesting apple though.
Some folks are calling it Minnesota Russet?
2 Likes
I picked Red Byrd Bitter today. I’m growing it on a pair of dwarf trees as an experiment. The experiment was an apparent success – t’s a cider apple that I really like, and (with spraying) it is a pretty clean tree ripening clean fruit. So far, the fruit is not absurdly abundant but it is large.
Last year I grafted a new tree on MM.111, which seems the right approach if it is destined for cider.
We had some ridiculous rain this week, associated with the big nor’easter. So, one of these apples is badly cracked; another has a small crack.
9 Likes
Windham Russet
Picked the final batch this afternoon. Very good. One I sampled was around 17 brix, which surprised me.
13 Likes
Yesterday I picked roughly 25 gallons of Otterson apples off a single dwarf tree; today I pressed them. The result was ~8 gallons of juice. The juice is a gorgeous red, almost like red wine. The ground flesh looked like raw hamburger. See the glass pictured.
I also picked a dozen Zabergau Reinette from a small dwarf tree. Here’s a sampling.
17 Likes
How well does Otterson hold up to Bitter Rot? I wonder if it has a chance here in the Deep South
So glad Windham worked for you. I was dashed when it could not here. You hanging on to some to see how they shift flavor by Christmas?
Try it. You never know…
I’ve got Otterson on Gen30 in dry hot sand. The tree likes to spread while young and is trouble free in my area. Maybe next year it will bloom first time.
2 Likes
I don’t know enough to generalize, but I’ve had no issue here.
1 Like
How do you like the ZR?
My palate is awful so I usually rely on others to provide a base description that I can react to. Pomiferous says “Yellowish flesh is fine-grained, firm, crisp, sweet, slightly tart and nutty-spicy.” I wouldn’t disagree. I’m reminded of grapefruit. FWIW, I measured Brix at 15.8.
The apples are big, maybe more than one person would want all at once. But it seems perfect for serving sliced.
4 Likes
I do love my russet apples. This one’s been growing well, no pests or disease issues. And it tastes great. It will be hard, given I want to eat them all, but I will save a few for eating towards the end of the year.
1 Like
Last week, the Ark Blacks tasted like insipid swine food. Today, they’re delicious with great aromatics when sliced.
I’m startled by how quickly the flesh is mellowing.
September was 4.6 degrees above normal and the trees bloomed 2 weeks early.
I will be making pie filling next weekend. ABs make awesome pie filling.
6 Likes
How do you judge ripeness? Just sampling, or can you judge by color ?
The area around the stem tells most of the story. When the apple is a month pre ripe, the area around the stem is pea green, then changes to tan. It needs to turn rose. The flesh should be parchment. The flavor peaks when the flesh has a slight greasiness to it.
I’m not sure if I have a different strain than most, but mine have gone from not ripe to full flavor and quick softening in a period of a week
I’m only gathering drops. No picking.
Back in the 80s, my father’s Starkspur Ark Black would have fruit hanging on the tree until early Dec.
11 Likes
My last Kudos Apple. Only had 4 of them on my second leaf tree. Really good Apple. I think this variety is going to be really popular once more people try them. So far it seems much easier to grow than honeycrisp.
I have 60 of them coming next spring on Bud 10.
8 Likes
My Thompkins King tree was attacked by turkeys, squirrels, and raccoons. I only got 2 this year. The apples look wildly different from each other. One is slightly over, and the other is not ready yet.
5 Likes
I don’t know why this picture is so blurry.
I wanted to show color and size differences in a few things I picked yesterday. The Glockenapfels I picked aren’t showing.
Left to right: Esopus Spitzenberg, much smaller than usual.
Cinnamon spice
Liberty
Hudson’s Golden Gem
Two Thompkins Kings
Some autumn olive
Muscat de Venus
Here’s the Glockenapfel. In another thread we were talking about Potomac Pears and their fizzy lemon lime soda or margarita taste.
These are similar.
I think the “fizzy sensation is actually air spaces in the fruit flesh. When you bite into these there’s almost a styrofoam bite, but with great flavor. It’s a shame coddling moth and bitter pit get a lot of these.
3 Likes
