Favorite apple to eat?

General Fruit Growing
#93

That was a very good post, but from what I gather, you and I would enjoy eating from different trees…maybe.

Do you really think so bunny? I think crisp breaking flesh is almost ( though perhaps not entirely) a pretty much universally held notion of a fine apple. The current breeding done both here and abroad I think is testimony to that .I think if an apple introduced today did not have crisp breaking flesh to some degree, it would never likely gain any traction in the marketplace regardless of the depth or complexity. I for one, don’t see that as a bad thing, but rather consumer choice no matter the nationality of the consumer.
Good points you made, I’d love to try all the apples you mentioned.

#94

Yeah, Fluff, nice of you to pop in.

I spend most of my time around fruit trees but have not developed your apparent subtle understanding and appreciation of the range of flavors and textures of apples. Having so many varieties side by side is an advantage my spread of sites cannot overcome- at least not with my relatively poor physical memory.

Still, I like to grow fruit on trees and it is so much more practical to limit a tree to 2 or 3 varieties for me.

Scott also does a great job of differentiating the great to subtle differences between a very wide range of varieties of the species he grows- and he actually grows trees. The nice thing about a cordone is you can be confident that all varieties are getting equal sun.

#95

Alan,

Well let’s face it, you do this for a living, I do not. I am growing for my own palate.

I want as much diversity in flavor and texture as possible to fulfill the requirements of culinary, dessert and for pairing with other fruits as well as cheese, crackers/breads and beverages as well as for drying. For those who have never tried it, you can have some great experiences combining fresh fruits with dehydrated ones. I particularly like the summer apples with dehydrated tart cherries or gooseberries. Most people want an apple to eat out of hand, i.e. dessert, when I taste an apple I evaluate it for dessert but then my mind goes quickly to what else it would combine with that would create a synergy. I find it fascinating that most apple aficionados .appreciate the multi variety approach to cider and to a lesser extent a good apple pie, but draw the line there and do not immediately consider apples or other fruits in the full range of what they can do in the kitchen.

I just harvested my first Harrow Delight. a nice pear, but it will not be enjoyed as a stand alone dessert pair. After being refrigerated fro 2 weeks it will be ripened at room temperature and eaten with a slightly dry hard cheddar cheese and dehydrated gooseberreis. This will elevate a good pear to something exceptional. By the same token I would never do that to a tree ripe Harvest Queen, which is a stand alone dessert pear or something to be paired with a much more subtle cheese.

I am reworking my yard after 20 years of experience and there is little I hope to do in the future that I did in the past. To Alan’s point, cordons are a great way to go. I plan to train most of my apples to single U’s on M27, which gives me just enough of most varieties to delight my palate and some to 4 arm palmettes.for those I want more of or are of T3 class. If I had to start over there is little I would train to a tree form except for storage varieties, cider, and drying.

Re Appleseed’s comments, I do not disagree that the world may becoming trained that the standard of an apple is hard and crisp, but to me it is analogous to how the world was trained to think that the color red was an indicator of an apple’s quality.

The public may like crisp apples, or think they do, but I can guarantee you older folks in a geriatric society show marked preferences to apples that are firm rather than crisp : )

At any rate market acceptance is not my concern, this is all about me, myself, and I.

Excelsior,

the fluffy one

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#96

Have you experimented much in the kitchen with black currants? To me they have so much more flavor than gooseberries or red currants, although it is not as though you have to pick one over the others as all have unique qualities. I choose only black currants because I have too much to do- it is hard enough just to find time to harvest the black currants.

Blending black currants into the mix will render the various apples in a juice somewhat unimportant. I put black currants with fresh pressed apple juice through a blender and strain it and the flavor of the combination is really amazing- the most delicious ambrosia I’ve even tasted.

#97

I keep propagating one black currant I got from Ed Mashburn, with a flavorful musky taste that I like. I agree they are culinary delights. I once had enough to juice and I loved the juice. I think they are absolutely one of the finest accompaniments as a sauce for duck or dark turkey meat (one part brown sugar, one part honey and three parts black currants, add black pepper and a hint of cayenne pepper and cook to a lumpy sauce. They also are fun (for me) so pair with Salmon both as a sauce, served crushed on top or used to smoke the salmon with (use leaves, stems and berries and simply throw on the coals and add the salmon. And of course a great vanilla ice cream with a large heap of black currants, oh so yummy. And for jelly …yum, yum.

Alan, how long do you black currants live? It seems to me I have to start a cutting every 5 years or so as they peter out in years 5 or 7. But they root very easily from cuttings.

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#98

A few days ago Scott mentioned that his black currants have gone into decline. It sounds like that may not be an isolated event. I hope that I’ve still got a few years on mine- the first 5 kinds I planted have just come into full production (year #5). This spring I planted 5 more varieties, so I suppose I just need to make a few backup cuttings of the winners from the first batch (Consort, Minaj Smeryu, and Blackdown).

#99

NY state has a bit of the goldilocks affect as far as seeming to have just the right temps to produce a wide range of fruit. I have bushes on my property that declined after 6 or 7 years (low yields but still healthy) and bushes on other properties that are going strong after 15.

An Eastern European immigrant and black currant worshipper suggested on gardenweb some time ago that it is helpful to remove all but this years wood immediately after harvest once bushes are established. It does seem to help.

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#100

Calville Blanc d’Hiver

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#101

I was eating sun warmed tree ripe apricots today- juicy sweet apricot candy. With treats like that on the trees I usually don’t even get around to harvesting my Harrow Delights. I’ve no use at all for summer pears.

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#102

I am jealous Alan! Those apricots sound so good. Apricot pie?

#103

It took me over 20 years to figure out the only place to get good apricots on my property was against the SE corner of my house. Branches spreading on the south side ripen first and get the sweetness and juiciness of the best of CA apricots- and it is just an Alfred, not a highly touted variety. The house on this corner has white stucco to reflect light and the driveway comes right up to the wall where the tree is, so light and heat are amplified.

My first fruit tree was an apricot and I love them as much as any fruit.

#104

I’m with you kid!

#105

What are your thoughts on Suncrisp? I have one potted on rootstock I’ll stick in the ground this fall.

#106

Like Fluffy, I consider Suncrisp a very enjoyable apple, even if they were trying to catch the Honeycrisp wave with that name. It is crisp, dense and firm, but without the big cell super crunch of its namesake. I seem to recall some problems with it on another site, I think rots can be an issue. On the single tree in my orchard it has been bearing well for three consecutive years. The flavor doesn’t hold up so well in storage although the texture does.

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#107

Do they grow well for you Scott (the Wickson)? Do you have it as a grafted limb or tree? Do you suffer from any particular maladies with it CAR, scab…or anything similar? Have any of you juiced or sauced it?

My good friend has a pretty sizeable home orchard and he has a crab that makes the most awesome applesauce imaginable…he has no idea what it is, nor do I.

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#108

I had two trees of Wickson, now I have one (well, a half, had to move my Pitmaston Pineapple to it a month ago).

It is a CAR magnet, one of the very worst.

It doesn’t cook to a puree, its not a sauce apple which is unusual for a crab - it shows how it is a different kind of crab.

I don’t have a juicer so can’t comment on making juice.

One reason why I have less Wickson than I used to is this issue of what to do with it - its on the sour side for cider. They are great little snack morsels right off the tree but I haven’t found much else I like to do with it.

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#109

I see a cider press and homemade cider clothes in your future :sunglasses:

#110

and off the list goes wickson.
what you said was exactly what I was afraid might be the case for me. The CAR susceptibility seals the deal.

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#111

For our annual cider making, the Wickson is a nice addition when available because we usually buy a full bin of bitterweets and don’t have enough acid to balance them out (this is for the hard cider run). I’ve used them in pie, but it is annoying to peel a lot of little apples. I bet my screw type all metal Squeez-O food mill could sauce them after being cooked, so they could be an addition to sauce mix. The CAR issue is a bit of a pain though.

#112

Hi John
No, sorry I won’t be able to make it on the first. I don’t have much yet in early apples - my Irish Peach all dropped suddenly around the first week in July but weren’t ripe - maybe too hot being near asphalt… I have a single Discovery so probably won’t be representative. I will be getting the first ever of William’s Pride fairly soon. I had high hopes for Sweet Bough but it died before I got to try it. If you ever get up near Tacoma, Steve Butler grows amazing Discoveries on Butler’s Farm in Gig Harbor. He has a road side stand.
Carole