Bob,
I don’t paint animals too often . . . mostly people - and some florals. 'Do a lot of portraits. Kids, mostly. And I have grown some fruits and veggies that were ‘painting worthy’, too! (I didn’t grow these . . . but I did end up eating them!)
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I buy supermarket apples in order to taste a lot of different apple varieties which are grown in many regions and stored for various periods of time. This gives me a benchmark that I can compare my apples to. Getting to eat the apples is a bonus. I do the same thing with Blueberries and Blackberries.
The most frustrating part of the process is the unpredictable taste quality of what I get from the supermarket. If I could take a bite of the apple first, it would really help!
Bought some Fuji and Pink Lady last week. The Fuji were great, but the PL were very bland
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The worse they are the better you look. It probably helps me that few of my clients have tasted a good pluot- they’ve long been discouraged from eating any plums because until pluots they were usually sour from any supermarket- picked while still hard for shipping and storage life. When they taste any kind of tree ripe plum off a tree I plant, it is the best they’ve ever tasted.
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Alan
Can describe how you get your apples to store so long?
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My best apples are in a fridge in a very cool basement, it’s a modern frost-free one but I take out a lot of apples when I occasionally open it so nothing shrivels for months because it mostly stays closed- probably limits the oxygen. I have them in cardboard boxes with plastic draped over the top. So far the quality of most varieties has held up well, some have lost maximum crunch but are still crisp enough to be good.
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we got a shitzu mix 3 years ago. he’s a great dog. his name is Bear. when he was little he was brown w/ black tipped hairs. then when he got his adult fur he was cream w/ red tipped hairs! looks totally different! he also has Pomeranian, lapso apso. poodle, and shnauser in him. he’s good with our 15yr. old boxer mix.
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@moose71 Steve . . . I used to be a cat person - but then I got a dog! There is no going back. Especially with the allergy factor! And these two that I have now NEVER lose a single hair. It’s uncanny. I know they say that they do not shed . . . but I really didn’t believe it until I got them!
My other dogs left ‘their own carpet’ on my kitchen floor every day! (But they also did not have to be groomed! I’m learning how to do that myself. $$$$)
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bear does shed some but not too bad. i like cats but hate litter boxes!
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Ah! In defense of Honeycrisp: about two or three years ago, I walked by the apples in this fruit shop near my house and was stunned by this amazing aroma coming from the Honeycrisps. They were huge and tasted even better than they smelled. They were floral, sweet, and slightly complex. In the years since, they haven’t smelled or tasted anywhere near as good and Pink Lady beats them every time.
Whatever magical combination of growing conditions produced those huge, fragrant honey crisps ought to have been bottled. Too bad. Those were maybe the best apples I’d ever tasted.
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Yeah - I’m in defense too. I have near 30 eating varieties but the premier eaters we await every year…by ripening, Pristine, HoneyCrisp, PixieCrunch, GoldRush. These 4 could be really the only ones i “NEED”.
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I’m so jealous of all of you that can grow your own apples. One of my favorite childhood memories is my dad taking me to a friend’s home - who had an apple orchard - in IL. I have no idea what variety they were. The apples were almost ready, so they were a bit tart. I loved them! I clearly remember sitting in the tree and eating so many that I got sick!
Even so . . . it’s still a good memory!
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Alan . . . what pluot would you suggest I try to grow, here in Chesapeake?
We have three very young plum trees. A Methley, a Satsuma, and a Chickasaw. None have set any fruit yet. Maybe this summer.
I’d like to get a pluot. (Tried nectarines . . . but the bugs got them.)
Are the pluots a bit hardier? - Karen
I’m no expert on pluots, the only variety I’ve fruited is Flavor Grenade, which seems to be very productive in NY Z6. They are about the same as J. plums as far as pests- where you are, most common fruits will likely be a bit of a battle. All stone fruits tend to suffer a lot from brown rot if you don’t use a synthetic fungicide to control it.
I was smitten by Honeycrisp when I first tasted it because its crispness made it taste like a freshly picked apple. I grew up in the middle of an apple orchard and was accustomed to the crispness of freshly picked apples. But store-bought apples and even farmers market apples usually don’t have that fresh crispness. Members of this forum have the benefit of enjoying their own fresh picked apples, so the attributes of Honeycrisp are not so special to them. And compared to fresh picked apples with more complex flavor, Honeycrisp apples may seem ordinary. It’s a shame that so few people can experience what fresh, properly ripened apples have to offer. Members of this forum who grow their own apples should feel privileged.
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I still haven’t had a Honey Crisp that was impressive. It’s just another modern apple with crispness and sugar, and it’s not even the best of that mediocre lot.
The new Redlove apples are infinitely superior to Honey Crisp.
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I haven’t in the last 10 years. Early on I had some Honeycrisp that may have been the best apples I’d had up until then. Now I can’t find any that I want to eat.
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Don’t even ask what the current Honeycrisp in Walmart taste like. As others say, Honeycrisp at one time was a premium apple with good to very good flavor. I can’t find any now that I would eat. Why? Because they have some tartness but zero sweetness. Same for Sweetango also at Walmart though they may have just a hint of sweetness. Both have off whang flavors probably absorbed during the journey from orchard to display.
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I think that y’all need Honeycrisp apples grown in the NY/New England. I think that the best Honeycrisp are probably grown in Zone 4 & 5. And on a side note…West Coast apples are bland IMO…all of them.
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Better yet, grown in MN where the variety originated.
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