Early Mac is a juicy, sweet, moderately firm and crisp early season apple , good for cooking as well as fresh eating. Like its parent McIntosh, it is mostly red with green or yellow patches. Its skin is dotted with lenticels which allow it to “breathe,” like the pores on our skin.
That description is from the new england apples site. Their pics look pretty much just like my apple… dots and all.
I looked up images of wealthy and it does look similar. It looks like wealthy often has some yellow show up as it ripens…
My early mc really just goes from green to red and once all green is gone the red color deepens and in the final stages is more purplish. If you let them get to that purplish stage they will be soft like red delicious ans sweeter.
I dont see any yellow on my early mc. Not in the later stages.
Bummer that the Early Mac gets mealy so quickly. Looks and sounds like a great apple. I am not sure I could use them fast enough to enjoy a whole tree worth. Maybe a limb or two grafted onto another tree would be worth it here.
I managed to find a picture of this exceptional apple I described further up this thread. I contacted John Bunker and also ran it by my friend whose Apple collection ranges into the several hundreds of varieties. Both said it was distinctive but unfamiliar to them as a known cultivar. It doesn’t appear quite as I remembered it, but appearance does vary season to season and by growing conditions. The 1/2 russet feature is consistent apple to apple and year to year. Also somewhat odd is that the russeting is sagittal, I.e divided vertically into 2 hemispheres.
It really depends on growing conditions and storage. Ive only had Fameuse a handful of times. Ive had much more McIntosh, both better and worse than Fameuse. One thing is for certain though- they are obviously related.
Scott Farm in Dummerston has Karmijn de Sonnaville this year. They are among varieties that survived May 18th hard freeze. I bought 2 apples to try later in the year.
Based on what I was able to find, there was a bad freeze in 1934 that harmed/killed many of the Baldwin apple trees in New England. Most likely those trees were not replanted due to fear of similar events recurring.
Ah. Who here has a Baldwin apple? We planted one in our new orchard, and are hoping to get our first fruit next year. I hear it’s supposed to be a good cider apple.
(We like our apples “intensely flavored” too–and Ashmead’s is one of our favorites. Too bad it’s never been all that prolific for us.)
not really. that winter was a doozy. there are still baldwins around too. theres an ancient one right up the rd from me. the trunk is completely horizontal - transverse or axial for the technical (loquacious) types ;-). It makes a ton of apples still. Ive no doubt its a century or more old, and its growing in a very exposed location. Clearly the driving NW winter winds have pushed it over
I somehow missed this. Fascinating! I’ve heard of apple chimeras wich have this appearance, but never an entire tree of half and half apples like this. Do all of the apples look similar regardless of sun exposure? Any ideas what the mechanism may be?
hmmm, well I suppose it COULD be a chimera. Ill have to revisit that tree next time we get a decent apple crop. Mine at home should be producing pretty well soon too. Ill be sure and update everyone when I can
