Harvested in early October, stored in a poly bread bag in fridge. Still in excellent condition. Great flavor, texture, juiciness, very little skin wrinkle. I was shocked at how good it was. Cameo in the past has not been my favorite apple and I was going to remove the branch to make room for something else, but now I think I’ll keep it. Here’s what I had to say about it five years ago:
Maybe it’s just that after a winter of eating apples that are obviously in their decline I’m not so dern fussy!
We still have plenty of Liberties, which are tolerable at this stage but not terrific - primarily because the texture is going towards the mealy side now, although they still have some crunch and snap, so they’re not bad yet. Just tried a Haralson that was very disappointing. But I’ll try the others in the bag before I pass judgement. Also have a handful of Stayman’s Winesap and a bag of Prairie Spy, which I’m saving for last. I think that’s about it.
I’ve never had a Gold Rush but I stuck some on the tree last year and now I’m excited to try them. We may never have a long enough season to properly ripen them, but who knows?
I thought Liberty weren’t especially long storers. My Lib tree produced five apples last year for the first time (fifth leaf). Three disappeared, and the two I picked were past their prime, too mealy. I’m going to have to figure out when the best time to pick my apples. When did your Libs become ready to pick?
The best of my limited crop of apples (about a dozen total) were in this order- Suncrisp, Zestar, Grimes Golden, Alkmene and Liberty. Of course, they didn’t last too long after picking.
Don’t think I’ve heard that much about Prairie Spy, what’s it like?
PS is something of an enigma for me. I’ve had a couple that were great, but two years ago they were wretched -just about inedible. But since they can be good, and they have a reputation as great keepers, I held on to them. I haven’t tried them this year but it’s getting to be time. I’ll post on them in a day or so I guess, after I get through the Stayman’s.
We were forced by weather to pick almost all our apples early after an unusually cool summer, and they were all off the tree by October 08, and they started coming off in September. (In a hot year they might be weeks earlier.) The ones that were picked before they seemed ready have kept the best, but it isn’t color dependent - some of the very dark red ones didn’t want to come off at all easily. I don’t have any of the other apples you mention.
I am sure you have said before @marknmt but what ways do you store your apples for winter? In boxes, in a refrigerator, cellar, brown paper bags… what?
It’s been discussed before, true, but it bears repeating. So, good that you ask.
I bought a box of polyethelene bread bags from the bakery I used to work at - I think they’re 4"x5 x15" and 1.5 mil, and they’re not perforated. This year I bagged, tied, and labelled the apples as I picked them, and put the bagged apples in a pail. When the pail got full I climbed off the ladder and put the bags in an apple box. When the box got full I carried it onto the back porch. When the back porch got full I took them to the fridge down stairs, and when the fridge was full I took them to the food bank! Never did fill up the food bank. ; -)
I think a bread bag holds a bit over 3 pounds of apples, so that’s a convenient amount.