Harvested my Carousel (Cameo) apples

General Fruit Growing
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Although my wife says these are very good, they don’t rank that high with me. I will give them credit for good flavor, and no doubt they are crisp enough and plenty juicy, and I could even smell them. I liked the flesh color (a nice, creamy yellow) and the striped skin is pretty enough. They reached a good size and bore generously on my frankentree, and the long stems make them easy to pick. If I recall correctly they’re pretty good keepers, and a person could do worse than to have to eat nothing but these as their apples. Their worst offence is that they are sure to offend no one, and so they just weren’t as interesting as a bolder apple might have been.

But they were on the subacid side for my jaded tastes (older taste buds need a little more zing than these offer) and they just weren’t distinctive. Better than just OK, even pretty good, but lacking the character of a lot of apples I like.

So if this is your kind of apple go for it, but I’ll probably graft most of mine over to something else. I need a better place to put my Sweet 16, and I’d love to have Kidd’s Orange Red and Esopus Spitzenberg … anybody know how Ashmead’s Kernel would do in Montana?

Sigh. So many apples (and pears! just started eating my pears!) and so little time.

: -) M

1 Like
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I have only picked a few of my Cameo apples, but I liked them fine. I completely agree that they did not have a bold taste. I believe they were targeted toward the mass market as a replacement for Red Delicious. So far, they seem to do OK in my climate zone

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A former boss whose father was a local commercial orchardist, gave me a Cameo in February one year, and it was one of the most delicious apples I can remember eating ever: perfect (to my liking) texture, excellent sweetness and flavor to back up the sweetness. In subsequent years I bought some at harvest time and wasn’t super impressed, but I think Cameo has the potential to be outstanding.

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I know just what you mean, I think. I’ve commented one Liberty’s variability, and of course, some years are going to produce a better vintage than another. I won’t pitch my Carousels entirely, but they are good growers and generous yielders, so I expect to still have plenty.

I do want to graft over more of my Liberties. I love the apple when it’s good, but it’s not a very good keeper- I can already tell the difference on those I picked in the middle of September, and right now the tree produces probably 150 or 200 lbs a year.