Experience with Red Fleshed Apples

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I actually like Redfield. Not great out of hand, but it is excellent as part of a blend for pie and cider (sweet or hard). We often struggle to get sufficient acid level in our hard blend if we use a bin of bittersweets as the foundation. Redfield has that in abundance. Plus, kind of cool that it is red inside.

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HollyGates,
Were these Redfield? I picked them from a place in Worcester, Ma. No one there knows what they were.

Scott Smith thought it could be Redfield as it was common in MA then. It was planted in 1960.

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I’d say they look like redfield. If that scale at the top of the picture is in inches, they might be about the right size; fairly large. The shade of red and the white in the middle looks right, though I imagine that might be common to other red flesh apples. The outside looks a bit more smooth and maybe a little less red than I am used to seeing, but pretty close.

Redfield is in fact the only full size red flesh apple I’ve seen in person or tasted (had some Dolgo from a tree overhanging the sidewalk in Cambridge last fall). Our Redfields are picked at Poverty Lane Orchard in NH by my cider buddy Ben and his group. What orchard did you get those apples at? How did they taste?

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I’ve read pretty much the same stuff everyone else here is saying. They are mostly lousy. I had the same idea as the OP with wanting to breed them a bit. Since then, I’ve read about so much work done trying to breed in red flesh with less than acceptable results that is has squashed my desire in that area. Aside from Mrs. G’s Mott’s Pink, I haven’t heard about any others that sounded worth having. I have two of them and wouldn’t be disappointed to lose either or both of them.

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I’ve read many studies where colors of fruits are associated with certain health benefits eg. Orange - vitamin c, blue- anthocyanins, green chloraphyl, etc… Those associations are not widely understood with red fruit but what I typically have read is its associated with lycopene such as in the case of tomato’s, or autumn olives, goumi etc. My point is red apples may be important for eyesight and need to have a place in our cider. Red cherries are another super food . red apples I suspect are equally impressive but untested.

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Where have you been???

I have been in Maryland for the last two weeks, enjoying being a grandmother for the first time! My first grand baby was born on 2/12/16, little Bianca Isobel. She came 2 weeks early, due to some sudden complications my daughter was experiencing, so this old NICU nurse jumped on a plane to get there ASAP. Both mommy and baby are doing extremely well, thank the Lord for all those miracles. That had to be the most stressful flight I’ve ever experienced. Up there with my Code Pink life flights with my preemies back in the day, lol!! So, I pretty much shut down all the electronics, so I could focus on my daughter and my very cherished granddaughter :slight_smile:

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Patty,
So glad things have turned out beautifully. Congrats. What a cutie!!

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Thank you, mamuang. It was a nail biter for me, let me tell you. The complications were with my daughter, and not the baby. So hard to keep my panic contained. It is completely different when it is your children involved. She was a little peanut when she was born - 5 lb. 14 oz. Went down to 5 lbs 6 oz when they were dicharged, then zoomed way up to 6 lbs 3 oz. in the next 6 days. She is breastfeeding exceedingly well, and the pediatrician was ecstatic on her weight gain and growth. About double of a full term baby (early babies play “catch up”, and Bianca is doing a sterling job of that). So, I could go back home knowing that she and Meggie are doing exceedingly well. Here is a photo of her from yesterday. You can see the difference in her face, just after about 6 or 7 days - the difference between the above and below photos:

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Hollygates,

It’s an apple tree planted in an old school in Worcester. I did not notice it until this year. It’s full of apples. The staff who works there told me it’s planted in 1960 when the school was established. No one eats it. I picked several and gave to a few friends. None of them like it. It tasted slightly sweet but mostly bland and had rough texture but it’s pretty. If you want scionwood, I could collect some for you.

Turned out there is another unnamed apple coming up next to this tree. The unnamed must be a seedling of a Red Delicious as the shape looks like RD but not as red. The texture is similar to RD, soft/melting, sweet, dense. The fruit is large and ripens in to Nov/Dec.

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Thanks for the offer mamuang, but you are not selling it so well with your description!!

I do plan on grafting on some Redfield at some point, but it sounds like I’d be better off using fully identified scion.

HQ, Congrates!! Your pictures of your grand baby makes it real for me, my first is due July 4. She’s a beauty for sure. Gives you that happy girl wiggle, don’t it?!!
God Bless, Chikn

In keeping with the thread theme, this little one looks more like a Pink Lady! :smile:

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@hoosierquilt

Patty,

BEAUTIFUL…

That is truly a scion to be proud of.!!!

Mike

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That is one adorable little girl!!! And the nose is perfection! You lucky lady. What new joy in your life! Lovely, Patty!

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Thank you everyone, for letting me stray a bit from the topic of this message thread, lol! She is, indeed, a cute little Pink Lady :slight_smile: :apple: Mrsg47, isn’t her nose adorable? She did not get either of her mommy or daddy’s (larger) Italian nose. Have no idea where that nose came from, but I’m sure glad! Speaking of Pink Lady, I ended up buying some today at the local supermarket, I was so shocked to see them for sale! Pink Lady (Cripps Pink) is a very, very popular apple out here in my neck of the woods. My Pink Lady tree does very well, and I just love the apples. Just the right amount of tartness or sprightliness without making me pucker. I’m not a sour fruit fan at all, but I do love my Pink Lady apples (even though this cultivar is not red-fleshed). I have a few other red-fleshed apples, and hoping I get some fruit from them this year. I have Pink Pearl, Pink Parfait, and Rubaiyat.

Patty S.

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I also have a ‘Rosy’ type apple that I love the taste of and that is Mott Pink. It was supposedly marked as a mite magnet, but mine is not. The apples sound alot like Patty’s Pink Lady apples. Tart, sweet, juicy and pretty. The flesh is light pink to ‘hot’ pink really fun apples and delish.

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I don’t grow apples. At least not yet. My interest in red apples is 2 fold. One Colors mean more nutrition in most cases. Red and orange fruits and vegetables are among the highest in vitamin C.
A one-half-cup serving of red bell pepper provides 95 milligrams of
vitamin C, which is about 25 milligrams more than a medium orange – the
popular gold standard for vitamin C.
Second most reds are heirlooms, and again known to be more nutritious.
I’m growing pink and purple fleshed radishes as they loaded with anthocyanins as are red apples. Some research supports increased resistance to cancer and heart disease from their consumption.
Pritam Kalia in India developed vegetables that are loaded with various anthocyanins to help breed more nutritious food. I’m growing radishes and carrots from his breeding program this year for the first time.

I hope they taste good, but that is secondary to their nutritional value.

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Hope to compare notes on Rubaiyat this fall. Hope for one or two this year.

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