I still have enough apples in plastic in the fridge to get me through the end of the month, maybe a little beyond. I’m planning on starting a thread on my apples similar to Scott’s annual apple report, but am waiting for a stormy day or two when I’ll be shut inside rather than tempted outside by the ridiculously warm and dry winter in my part of the west right now. I’ll include Brix numbers of many of my apples (new toy acquired in early November), which I hope inspires some conversation.
Back to the topic herein, this is what I still have hanging around. I am constitutionally unable to write about fruit (or much anything else) in brief, punchy pros, so please soldier through what follows. From the first three listed I have one apple remaining from small crops of first-time fruiters :
GoldRush - just as sweet, complex, intense, crisp and juicy as advertised. I had five or six off of a runty tree that I’m going to have to replace due to sunscald and borers. I’ll keep it limping along until then and maybe try inarch grafting to save the tree. 24 Brix on the only apple I measured thus far.
Suntan - holy smokes! This was my best apple this year. I had around 15 on my young tree. Taking a bite was like getting walloped in the mouth with the most intensely sweet/tart apple you could imagine. They were great right from their 10/15 harvest, improved through 12/15 but showed some signs of degrading in the last couple I’ve eaten since 12/29, where both apples had some browning and softening of the flesh with accompanying loss of complexity around the stem end. The bottom 2/3ds of each apple remained terrific with crisp, sugary, brightly flavored flesh. Brix measured 26-27 in all cases thus far.
Esopus Spitzenburg - I had a huge (for me) crop from two trees on two different stocks, M.111and G.30. The M.111 crop was larger because the tree is larger, and M.111 apples were also quite a bit larger. The G.30 apples were slightly more intense and stored a little better, which makes sense to me, given that larger apples generally are less intensely flavored due to higher water content, which maybe affects longevity in storage, but that final bit is just a guess. Regardless, apples from both trees tasted great, were juicy, crisp and had a nice sugar/acid balance for a couple of months (10/15 harvest date). The flavor has sweetened in the past month with some loss of complexity and softening of the flesh. It’s still quite nice if you don’t mind the slight mealiness. Brix measured between 19-21 on all specimens (I measured a lot of these apples).
Golden Russet (four remaining from a nice crop) - Most of these apples had some level of sunburn (it was pretty bad through much of my orchard last summer, which was quite hot), and I left them on the counter for a couple of weeks after harvest, which caused some dehydration. Even so, they remain crisp and fairly juicy at this time and their flavor continues to impress. One specimen measured 29 Brix on 12/9 with several others measuring between 26-28 as recent as 1/4. I really like this apple, though I’m certain it would be better without the sunburn, as a handful of cleaner apples from the interior of the tree were more complex and had better texture overall.
Newtown Pippin (seven remaining from a crop similar to GR above) - Another 10/15 harvested apple–had a bear in the orchard the night before and didn’t want to risk losing my apples, so I harvested all the late ripeneners. Aside from one perfect specimen on 1/4, which was crisp, aromatic and tasted something like an apple Jolly Rancher, though at “only” 16 Brix, all have been somewhat mealy since sometime in early-mid December when I began eating them out of storage, though the flavor remains pretty good. Brix between 18 (today) and 24 (Dec. 15) with most around 20. The lesson here is likely harvest earlier, though NP is supposed to be a November apple.
Suncrisp (six remaining out of ~ 15 from first crop) - A large, beautiful yellow-green apple with just a hint of blush on it’s sunward side. This and Esopus Spitz were my most attractive apples. I’m a pretty big fan of PRI apples out here in hot, dry Nevada. Pixie Crunch delivers a good crop of very nice apples every year, GoldRush was excellent this year, though the tree is in poor shape. Sir Prize gave me two mealy, overripe apples this year and I have questions about it’s productivity here up to now, but last year gave me a handful of excellent specimens in its first cropping (Golden Delicious flavor, which I really like, on steroids–more acid and more sugar). William’s Pride and Pristine have yet to produce for me. After one fruiting, I’m sold on this apple. If it conforms to PRI’s literature, Suncrisp will crop well annually and deliver the same large, clean fruits. It continues to hold up well, with the sharp flavor off the tree (10/15 again) mellowing to complex and fruity with plenty of sugar. Its texture remains excellent. I had one specimen on 1/4 which was less sweet and much less complex than any I’d eaten prior, but the remaining apples all appear to be in excellent shape. Brix has not been consistent with one apple measuring between 16-21 on different parts of the fruit and my first measured apple, hit by coddling moth, at 24. Most of the others I’ve measured were 20-21, though they tasted sweeter.
I’ll have a future report with comments on these plus an additional 20-30 apples I fruited this year.
