Are any of you growing Evercrisp? A commercial orchard consultant I know just told me it is hands down his favorite apple and he joined MAIA just so he could grow it in his small PYO orchard. He says it’s ugly but tastes beautiful.
He also says anyone can join the organization for $100 and get access to all the apple varieties they’ve developed, and generally, any apple that thrives in the midwesst can’t be too hard to grow most places. The consultants orchard is in the Hudson Valley and he first sampled this variety in orchards there.
Alan, I heard great things about Evercrisp from multiple sources as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if it tasted better than the famous Cosmic Crisp. A friend of mine is growing it, quite vigorous variety, it’s a Fuji x Honeycrisp cross if I remember correctly so not resistant which might be it’s disadvantage.
Same here, two of my kids who don’t like apples fell in love with Evercrisp. I get it from a local orchard in PA throughout the winter, probably consuming half a dozen bushels of it every year! It is also a great keeper, last year I bought it from the same orchard in June! was still mostly crunchy and the flavor slightly less than in the middle of the winter.
Tossed an Evercrisp today. Purchased at supermarket in Feb.
Been in front seat of pickup truck ever since (a snack I never did eat).
Just finally rotted…despite being locked up in a truck often parked in the sun!
Not sure that’s the virtue of the variety per se, or due to help from the final fungicide spray it got to enable long storage. In any case, that’s really remarkable, there are not many varieties of apples that would mostly survive the summer inside a car! I am happy I planted a couple of trees of it this year.
I suppose like with many other apples…some scions will be distributed.
I remember something like 5 years ago I had an email exchange with Markus Kobelt of the ‘Redlove’ apples. Asking when I could obtain one of his apple cultivars in the US. He replied they were not available in America.
I proceeded to mention I already had two of them…and there was no more conversation.
So, little birdies do distribute scions sometimes.
The laws are to protect the breeders from commercial production of their creations that don’t provide them revenue. I hate the club system because I’d be happy to pay my share for that work but there is no such avenue for us home growers- not one within the law. The ethics of growing patented varieties in a very small and non-commercial scale is somewhat open to interpretation- the law is unenforceable at that level.
My transformation into a snob is complete.
I drink hard to pronounce wines from Italy in addition to locally produced hard cider, I hang out at a yacht club, I smoke a pipe and to top it off I now have a favorite orchard where I buy Evercrisp. I can’t help myself. I used to try to have a working man’s hero thing going on with being an aspiring orchard owner…but I’m just a snob.
In all seriousness, the Evercrisps at the orchard I stop at were picked in October. It’s now July and my mother was just telling me that the Evercrisps best the daylights out of even the club apples she gets at the grocery store.
All I can do is hang my head in shame, embrace my inner snobbery and try not to be to hard on myself.
MAIA’s really on to something. I hope their other varieties hold up as well as Evercrisp. I like ludacrisp too… it’s biggest drawback being that it goes south in storage by April.
