Good point. I smile when I refer to your user name.
John S
PDX OR
Wow! Iām sorry you cant get good Gala apples. The 2024 report is out and they are still the #1 apple grown in the US. A Gala grown in the proper location with its Cox Orange Pippin and Golden Parentage will be super crunchy and very sweet / flavorful.
Unfortunately the trees are disease magnets so I have all but quit them. When I did used to grow a lot of them I sold them at Pike Place Market in Seattle where I competed with all the wholesalers from Eastern Washington with their great big beautiful Galas that they got that way by pumping them up with nitrogen and water. They were a thing of beautyā¦ unfortunately they tasted like crap!
Maybe thats what your getting?
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Iād love to try such a Gala. Iāve never had one that I thought was good.
Freyberg and Rubinette, with the same parents, are among my favorite apples.
I wish I could sit down at a tasting with a Gala that you and I could share, along with some others, so I could be sure I was trying a good one before casting judgement.
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Yah, grocery store Galas are pretty much hopeless between Eastern WA ruining them and the loss of quality that comes with a couple dozen clones / sports.
It would be great to do a tasting! All of us local growers used to do that, back when we had an apple industry here in the Skagit Valley. The Gala is a sensitive variety. Doesnt like too much heat or too much cool during the growing season.
There was great variability in flavor between the Galas grown, here in the Skagit, depending mostly on how far away from the ocean the orchard was. Closer to the ocean, here, means earlier start to the season and further up valley means hotter summer days colder nights, just what apples like.
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The gala apples I got from a local Amish orchard many years ago were always sweet and flavorful but evercrisp is the only apple I now buy in bulk. Evercrisp beats all including the apples I grow myself - chestnut, wickson, cop and store bought apples such as cosmic crisp, jazz.
A previous colleague of mine has a family owned commercial orchard. She would bring in the most delicious large galas imaginable. Truly superb in many ways. Flavor too. Michigan galas are awesome
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@JohnS I grabbed a medium sized okay colored Cosmic Crisp from Albertsonās last night and it was only okay. Flavor was a little watered down, sugar not super high. No off flavor, but definitely not top tier. I normally wouldnāt have tried that piece but Iād figured Iād see if maybe āthey are all good this yearā holds.
I have a much nicer looking one in the fridge I got a couple weeks ago to try too.
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Yes, back to the subjectā¦ I have 30 trees of Cosmic Crisp most on G935 some on emla26 all on trellis. I purchaced the G935 trees from a licenced nursery 4 years ago and had to sign a grower contract. This specified the harvest parameters and market timing. A starch comparison chart was provided and the starch level for harvest is #2. This is on the 1-6 scale. #2 shows barely any starch conversion and if one does a ābiteā test at this point, it would be a spitter.
The parameters then go on to say that after 6 weeks in storage the apples can be sold providing they have reached #5 on the starch chart.
Average picking date (for eastern WA) would be Oct 20. Aprox 170 days after full bloom.
Sale date Dec 1
Optimum regular storage 6 mo
Optimum CA storage 6-12 mo
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Do you think the growers providing the apples I bought are following these guidelines?
For sure if you purchase CC in any grocery store type situation then Yes.
There is a stipulation in my contract for āfarmgateā sales that allows different allowances but it mostly speaks to the production royalties to be paid.
Since I dont sell long term stored apples I have been experimenting with when would be the ideal harvest time for CC for more medium term storage like maybe 3-4 months. This would carry me through my market season and keep me in apples to eat for a while. I dont expect them to keep as well as some like Goldrush but thats fine.
So far my sweet spot seems to be some where around a starch level of 3.5 which has been mid Oct for me, although that varies widely.
I may have enough to also open them up for u pick this year, for the first time, which should be about a week later.
Bottom line, though, is that the apple is HUGELY different when allowed to ripen on the tree. Way more sugars but still a zing of acidity. Crunchy always. It has picked up some of the flavor qualities of the Enterprise McIntosh but very sweet. Customers have been loving it although for me the breeders missed the boat when they used Enterprise instead of some other Mac. For me the skin is just a little toughā¦not as bad as an Enterprise but its there. Of course I am very picky when it comes to apples.
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I really appreciate getting to hear your experience and knowledge about growing apples. Thank you.
Today I had the nicer looking (medium-large, fuller darker color) Cosmic Crisp. It was disappointing. It was fine, but not as good as the apples I buy to eat for pleasure.
I pared the skin off of a quarter and tried just the flesh. I also ate just the pared skin. The skin portion was good and Iād have happily eaten a bunch of that. The flesh was too tart for the sugar it had and not much interesting flavor. Also the skin with a little flesh had a crunchier bite.
So I got out my cheap refractometer and measured the juice at 13 brix. Later I cut an Evercrisp for my daughter. It had a fruity, Fuji style fragrance that was enticing and measured 19 brix. Much better. I think 15 is around the threshold for a top tier apple for my palate. I donāt mean to imply that I think that sugar is everything, but it is a prerequisite.
BTW, I have Cosmic Crisp tree that is just starting to come into production. The critters got nearly all of the first half dozen produced last year, and the one I picked I think was premature. It was down to 2 and one of those disappeared so I didnāt want to press my luck.
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Im with you on the fuji. There is a particular strain that is mottled or checkered in appearance and i wish i knew which one it was because it tastes the best.
I am hoping to get a Cosmic Crisp tree to grow my own apples. I have a slightly different flavor profile difference than Murky. He prefers a sweeter apple. I like more of a balance of sweet and tart, with many other flavors thrown in. Since Iāve never had a Cosmic Crisp in a grocery store that I thought was disappointing, the general flavor of Cosmic Crisp may be more to my liking. Every one that Iāve eaten was great IMHO. My wife is also a super taster like Murky, who really doesnāt like bitter flavor, even at small doses. She likes CC and has never complained about it. It will be interesting, so I may ask her for more details on her flavor preference for CC and other apples.
JohN S
PDX OR
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I had some Cosmic Crisps from a good source recently ā¦ yawn.
This thread reminded me I still have a bunch of Yates in storage and so I am eating one now. Now thatās an apple! Not so crisp that it gives me a stomach ache, a perfect balance of aromatics with acids and sugars (18 brix due to plenty of hang time and months of storage), stores well til summer, not so big and hard that I get my jaw bent out of shape eating it, etc etc.
I should confess I like none of the recent apples much at all. Call me olā cranky apple 
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Makes me want to try a Yates, if I could find one.
John S
PDX OR
I weighed exactly 1 pound
You old cranky apple! ; -)