Well, in memory anyway. After 4 consecutive years of wet and grey growing seasons, mid and late season varieties this year benefitted from an endless stream of warm clear days and adequately cool nights to achieve a level of quality unsurpassed in may last 40 years of east coast apple tasting. Later ripening varieties like Pink Lady and Goldrush that I often have to leave on the tree until mid-Nov have been ready to start harvesting for the last 10 days.
It’s the first time in years that I’ve gotten excellent Baldwin apples, reminding e of why they were once my favorite. They are also larger than I remember them.
To assure apples are at peak ripeness, I twist them lightly and if they don’t fall in my hand I leave them for another couple days. To experience the best Baldwins, this is key. When they are truly ripe they are about to drop.
I would love to try a perfectly ripe Baldwin. I fear more then a few old heritage apples got a bad reputation due to ways of the markets back in the day.
I am very partial to Wagener and it’s progeny. A perfect subacid light sweetness. And all annual bearing and very productive.
Baldwin is in the dense flesh category so it was often picked green and shipped in barrels, I’m told. It also ripens very unevenly so I’m sure commercial apple growers tended to pick them too green for both reasons. If the background color is green it isn’t ripe.
If you don’t have big boulders under your trees like my Baldwin does you can just let the grass grow to cushion the fall and harvest them off the ground. They drop off the tree while still hard. They are like a perfect applely apple when properly ripened.
The late VA apple guru, Tom Burford, considered Baldwin a top 10 apple even in VA before the weather turned too warm for it. I’m surprised it’s so good here this year given how warm it’s been. It didn’t even ripen early like many varieties. That’s what must have saved it.
Yes, it was still a popular commercial variety here in NY when I started my business. It is about the most reliable annual bearer of late apples I know of and a very easy to manage tree.
A customer had me plant about 30 seedling root stock apple trees 30 years ago to create an alle and she wanted them all to be Ida Red. She figured it would look more uniform if it was all one variety and IR was her fav. I talked her into planting multiple varieties instead, for which she is eternally grateful as she compromised by only planting IR on one side (I should have made it every other tree). Of course, by now, she gets crops way beyond her capacity to give away were it not for the local food bank.
It’s been years since I’ve tasted one, but I remember it as being pretty tasty. It is highly esteemed as a cooking apple. I often consider growing a branch in my orchard but I haven’t gotten around to it.
Some of the apples I grew were especially big this year, including Baldwin. In the past I’ve harvested Jonagolds that weighed up to a pound. I prefer a smaller apple- about half that if I’m eating it out of hand. For cooking big size can be convenient and visually impressive as slices.
