The apples that survived this year:
Glockenapfel. Yellow with a blush of pink. HEAVY cropper, spicy, dense, crispy, tart, some russet on shaded side and at stem. A not bad but strange flavor. Traditional Swiss strudel apple.
Royal Empire. Dark red over green. Another heavy cropper, gets sweeter as it darkens,really good out of hand apple. Kids love it. Brown rot problem this year.
Kidds Orange Red. An orange apple! Go figure. Big, really nice, heavy, apple. Rough skin, yellow, crispy, excellent flavor. 2nd bearing yr., much better this year.
Jonathan. This apple is from a 100 yr orchard. I don’t like jon’s but this is a good apple, better every yr. Medium red over green. Takes a nice shine.
Westfield seek no further. Dull, faded, magenta over gray green. What this apple lacks in looks, it makes up in flavor. Dense sweet/tart flesh, one of the better drying apples. If you don’t mind a less crunchy apple, this has good ‘apple’ taste.
Baldwin. Red and yellow stripes over a light green. I grafted a branch from the same orchard the Jon came from, glad I did because it was a tree I lost. All around my second favorite apple, looks good, eats good, and bakes the Best pies! Ants get after this fruit.
Ribston. Just starting to get some sugar when it blew over. Had a nice crop of fruit. The green fruit along with Ashmead’s made tremendous apple butter. Hard to flavor this apple because it was still green.
Zestar. Reddish blush over yellow. Mushy, washed out flavor, not a good apple. This one will be regrafted to Ribston and Baldwin.
So far a real unpleasant year. The apples have tasted good if they don’t break off. More tastings to come as the apples ripen.
Thanks for letting us plagiarize you, Scott!!
Some new tasters…
Winecrisp. Dense, HARD, crunchy, juicy. Good sweet/tart appley, flavor. A hint of anise and a slightly boozey flavor. About a week early, sooty blotch, and you need good teeth! Overall a really good apple.
Karjimn de Sonneville. Another hard dense apple with a little more acid than I prefer. A granular texture this year like a well aged Parmigano Reggiano cheese, plus the usually complexity and strong flavor. A very long lasting, pronounced apple aftertaste which I find pleasing. If you don’t grow this, consider it an excellent apple.
Margil. Very nice dessert apple but is not crunchy. Hard to sort out all the little flavors and nuances, first crop, 1 tasty apple, I had only 1.
Airlie’s red flesh. Not a complex apple but a real pleasant eat. Waxy skin, sweet, a hint of berry, pretty, melting flesh. I’m happy to have this apple.
Pixie Crunch. Small, very crunchy apple. outstanding sweetness and flavor, one of the best this year.
Pomme Gris. One little flattened, russeted apple survived the summer. Where has this apple been hiding, stunningly good! My perfect sweet/tart balance-slightly sweeter. Very rich, spicy and a winey taste that compliments just the right crunch. You need to grow this apple! Wow!
Wagonner. A mildly sweet apple with dense, water cored, chewy white flesh, and heavy skin leaves you with a mouth full of tannic and slightly astringent pulp. Plenty of juice and acid and didn’t bruise falling from the tree. 1st apple from this tree, we’re not off to a good start. It would make a good cider apple. Green/brown with red stripes. Close to a spitter.
Update on WSNF. First slices off the drier were excellent.
Of yours, I have Jonathan, Winecrisp, Baldwin, ARF (Airlie Red Flesh). I’m in SW Washington State, a 45 miles downwind (NW) of Portland, OR.
In my climate, soil, garden, Winecrisp is great for pies, and very productive, no disease. Nice looking midsize apple similar to Liberty. I think I like Liberty better but that pie was great.
ARF is sprightly, a touch of berry. This year they were really red inside. They got quite a lot of scab.
Not sure about Baldwin. Maybe mine aren’t ripe yet despite falling off tree. I thought they tasted like hard, sour grass. Maybe they don’t like my climate. A little scab, not much. Supposedly biennial bearer, I don’t know if that is with aggressive thinning.
I have Jonared with many grafts, one is Jonathan. I can’t tell the difference, except Jonared is redder. Even the flesh was decorated with pink splashes. Nice flavor. I am nostalgic about Jonathan because I grew up with them. Here they are a smaller size apple. No disease here, despite what I read.