To my point immediately above, I noticed this written before.
Michael Dolan, the owner of Burnt Ridge Nursery in WA, is the one who told me about Liberty’s nutritional benefits. I don’t have any sources beyond that but I trust him blindly haha, he’s a guy who really knows his stuff and he wasn’t selling me anything - I already had the Liberty tree.
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It seems like I’ve read that the deeper red a fruit or veggie is, the more nutrients it has? Liberty does get dark red when dead ripe. So do many other apples however.
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I think that comes from the book “Eating on the Wild Side” by Jo Robinson. It’s a pretty interesting read. She’s a journalist that focuses on promoting varieties of fruit and veg with higher nutrition. The overall jist being that we’ve bred the nutrition out most of our modern varieties. She even points to research showing it’s not the reduction of nutrients in the soil, but actually the varieties themselves that are less nutritious regardless of the soils they are grown in.
Liberty is one of the varieties she recommends because it’s higher in nutrition among commonly available varieties.
But, if you’re really interested in chasing nutrients then the Monty’s surprise apple is supposed to be one of the healthiest in the world. Many times more polyphenols than the commonly available varieties. And Burnt Ridge offers that one as well.
Not sure how practical or useful any of this research is, but it’s interesting to read about nonetheless.
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I picked our Liberty apples today. Quite a few were larger than I’ve ever seen our Liberties, but that has been true of many varieties. Guess all that rain was good for something. We, too, have had meh years and great years for flavor. I think this will be a very good year. I haven’t picked the Macouns yet. I use them to compare.
Talk of the nutritional values of the Liberty reminds me a bit of the claim I’ve seen about the Calville Blanc that it is very high in Vitamin C, more than an orange. That may be correct, but that is likely true of all acidic apples, so it is not a singular quality.
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Liberty is a medium-sized red apple that was once rare but is now becoming more common.
If a human were ever to produce AI text, that would be it.
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Well put
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Our liberty apples typically have above average protein. That and other extra vitamins contributed by codling moth.
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Just following up, the Liberty’s that I picked early September I have eaten out of my fridge this week and they still blow the others away from that Orchard. This apple needs way more attention! If this was the only apple variety that I could grow and eat I’d be satisfied. Liberty…why does NO ONE talk about this apple???
The apples I tested at the orchard and have eaten at their ripening dates the past month or so are: Grimes Golden, Braeburn, Fuji, Jonafree, Jonagold, Candy Crisp (gross apple), Ultragold, Royal Empire, Snowsweet, Enterprise
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