Probably the apex of the earliest best ‘June Apple’ would be the Perrine Yellow Transparent… aka Granny Smith Lite.
In Kentucky/Ohio and east coast a Lodi may also be called a ‘June Apple’ aka. Improved Yellow Transparent.
I am fairly sure that my local farmers market carrying June Apples are Lodi… as they are from Ohio.
Im pretty sure that the apples that i remember eating as a kid that we called June apples were probably Russian Yellow Transparents.
if never made sauce from Yellow Transparent.
Why is it the best sauce? Do you add sugar? Or keep it “pure”? YT is not very sweet.
i was raised on y. transparent. it was one of the 1st apple trees to be grown in n. Maine and there are lots of them along the fields everywhere up here. they do make a great sauce but if you use them exclusively use a little more sugar than the recipe asks unless you are used to slightly tart applesauce like me. i put some whipped cream on mine or a dollop of van. ice cream. also make a great apple butter. they are ready here in late July.
YT cooks down quickly into a smooth sauce. Definitely needs sugar in my opinion.
yeah, & if you wait a day or two you barely need to cook ‘em!
also a great song, and played on a fruit!
that’s neat!
My source for Liveland Raspberry is dying, but at 50 years old it is only about 15 ft tall. I think that whole area was once garden, which is probably why it did quite well for this area.
There must be at least a dozen distinct “June” apple varieties in the South. Quite a few which can picked in June to cook with. Or harvest in July when they sweeten a bit.
Hi Oscar, I just saw your question. Yellow Transparent apple sauce is very smooth, almost like it was whipped. Don’t add sugar, except maybe a little bit. We always sprinkled cinnamon on it when we ate it. It’s best frozen to keep. You don’t need to peel them. Maybe add a little water so they don’t burn. Cook them to mush after you halve and cut the seeds out. Put them in a big pot, cook them soft, them run them through a sieve to separate the skin. To me it is the best, because I never had any applesauce that comes close to it. When you eat it, if it is too sour, put a little sweetener in it then.
YT is seen more in the Mountains in the South. Parmer, Calvin, Starr and Horse all occupy the Acid/Briskly subacid niche. But take Southern heat better then YT. I’m forgetting an Alabama one. Also Cauley. All also early apples.
how we’ve done them here since i was a kid. a little sugar and cinnamon, topped with a dollop of whipped cream. poor mans dessert. i use a immersion blender to cut up the skins.
There was a Yellow Transparent tree at the home I grew up in, at Auburn AL. I don’t recall exactly when it ripened, but since Mom & Dad called it ‘June apple’, I suspect the season was June. Like every other YT or Lodi I’ve seen, there was about a 15 minute window of opportunity between they were crisp, tangy and tasty, and when they went soft, mealy, and unappealing. I guess ‘in the day’, coming off a long winter with no fresh fruit, they were a welcome respite, but IMO, ‘they ain’t much punkin’. I’m sure when I was a kid, I ate enough of 'em to get ‘the green-apple quick-step’…
Sour June is another “Pucker up” early apple of the south.
We ate YT with salt at the sour stage- yum! Ditto unripe mango with salt.
my wife loves them like that. salts rhubarb too.
Yellow June: This apple is of unknown origin, but it is has been known to exist since 1845. If this apple ripened during August or later, it may have slipped into extinction. There are many other varieties ripening later in the season that offer much more. The Yellow June is tart, it bruises easily, and does not keep well. However, timing is everything to this apple. As a child, I loved this apple because it was the first to ripen at my grandparents’ farm, often around Father’s Day in June. Rural southerners knew the advantages of an apple ripening this early and had waited many months to taste the first apple of the summer season. Since my childhood, I have discovered that this apple is also one of the best frying apples, having the consistency of a sauce. Though this apple does not have the fresh eating qualities of the Carolina Red June, it ripens slightly earlier, definitely cooks better, and is more tart. The fruit is medium in size, a bright yellow upon full ripening (green otherwise), and the flesh white, tender, and briskly subacid. Ripens in late June and early July.
Carolina Red June
Carolina Red June : A North Carolina apple originating before 1800, this apple is perhaps the best eating apple to ripen before July. A cute, small to medium apple, its beauty is exceptional for such an early apple. It was prized for its cooking quality as well. The tree does well on many different soils, is productive, and tends to bloom late, assuring a crop most years. It is susceptible to apple scab and cedar apple rust. The fruit ripens over a period of several weeks. This apple is a must for apple lovers. The flesh is white, fine grained, tender, juicy, and briskly subacid. Ripens late June into July. (One of my favorites)
I just planted both of these trees alone with seven other apple trees, hopefully I will have apple from last of June to Mid November.
Early Harvest, Summer Rose, Yellow Transparent and Red Ash-Trashcan come to mind. Summer Rose is good for about 30 minutes after picking. The rest are pucker up cooking types. There is June Sweet as well.
There are a lot of very obscure Southern early apples. J.W. Day is my favorite but very late June is as close as it comes. But it is a very overlooked hot climate heritage apple.
Oh and Sour June…and how could I forget the sometimes massive Starr{Early Greening}
