Today ate my first Freedom apple from a graft I made two years ago. It’s a disease resistant apple frequently paired as a pollinator with Liberty. My small sample of one apple was: crisp, crunchy, slightly tart, excellent apple (not as complex as Goldrush) but made me wish I had five more to eat. Impressed me a lot more than the LIberties I ate a few years ago.
I get the impression Freedom flies under the radar, taking a back seat to LIberty, et al. I recommend it. It has grown here in Zone 7B with no disease and no insects since I bagged it in a Ziplock bag at dime size. Seems precocious.
Well, it does have a Macoun in its parentage, like a Liberty. I liked the Libs we got from the orchard, nice and tart, and has an attractive deep red coloring to it. What does a Freedom look like? Do you have a pic of it and the tree, and do you have more ripening? How big has it grown these two years?
Must be cool to get to sample something that you grafted a few years ago. I can’t wait to see our little trees produce some fruit, but it’ll be another couple years before that happens. I do have a 7’+ Winesap though that I hope could maybe produce a few of apples next year.
Freedom stores for a month or two. The key to long storage of freedom apple is probably preventing the summer rots that it is susceptible to. I really like the freedom apple for all around use, fresh eating, really good applesauce, and sweet cider. It even makes a good pie. It is not immune to fireblight, however. It also seems to be somewhat insect resistant until the birds and bees get word of the ripening fruit.
Please, share some pictures of your Freedom! I picked some at an orchard last the weekend. Very similar to Honeycrisp. They looked like Honeycrisp, were very crunchy and juicy, maybe not as sweet. Were they mislabeld?
Been a while since anyone talked about Freedom apples on here…im wondering if people who have been growing it can give some follow up to how things have gone? I have a 2-yr Freedom on G11 that hasn’t fruited yet. I’ve found that it is very susceptible to WAA (only one in an entire row with them), but otherwise no issues yet.
I have a mature Freedom in our yard in town that produces every other year. I keep trying to remind myself to do major thinning on the “on” years, but I always seem to forget. The apples are nice–tart, crisp, juicy–and I’ve used them for making cider. We have one small one in our orchard in the country, but it was the only tree that got damaged by deer, so it’s taking awhile to catch up again. It will be interesting to see if it truly is the same tree as our in-town one.