You can buy Evercrisp trees but costs are rather high to do so. You need to sign a 20 year contract. Per tree the fees are not so bad, just $1 royalty and $4.40 marketing fees. But you need to be a member in the MAIA for those 20 years at $100/year. So to plant an Evercrisp would cost you $2005.40 plus the cost of tree from the licensed nursery.
If they offered it with just the $5 royalty, Iād buy a tree, even from Gurneyās. But, $2000+ is a bit much for me, as this is just for fun, not to sell fruit. For the guy at the farmerās market, I think it is a good investment. When the $2000 gets spread over 100+ trees and 20 years of time, it isnāt as bad. From what he told me the other day, without a crop, and with all the rain this year, the trees have really sized up. There should be plenty of these apples next year at the farmerās market.
Actually, it was free, which makes it taste even better
Weāve both been bringing each other samples of fruit that the other hasnāt had. For instance, I brought him a Florina Querina this week and muscadines, a new Chinese pear (from ARS) and jujubes in past weeks. Of interest to this thread, he also brought me samples of another MAIA experimental apple. He doesnāt actually have a name for it- they just sent him a few trees of it to try out. It was in mid-late September and was like a slightly denser Zestar (one of my favorite summer apples). Over a 3 week period, the brix gradually moved up from about 13.5 to 15, with the apple coloring up a bit. Even at 13.5 it was a very good apple, though the Evercrisp I had the other day was better.
Some of the vendors at the farmerās market are just resellers. For instance one of the larger ones, grows the veggies, but sell other growerās fruit and corn. But there are a couple places where they grow it themselves and are happy to chat for a few minutes. That, as much as the fruit, makes going to the FM something I like to do.
I grow veggies for several FM vendors. I did my 15+ years every Sat. trying to peddle honey. Even with the heavy industrial antifatigue mats, I couldnāt function the rest of the day. The people at those markets earn their profits. Now they hand me what they sold the veg for and I give them 25%, equitable both ways!
True- Iām not saying they donāt work hard or earn their money. I just like talking to the ones who are growing the fruit. I buy some things from the others, though not as consistently. One place in particular has good sweet corn (that they donāt grow) and once in a while they have French prune or Empress plums.
If I ever have so much of something that I need to sell it, that is how Iād want to do it. But most of my fruit isnāt pretty enough to sell, so maybe the only candidate would be jujube, which look fine even without sprays. And while Iāve planted a lot of trees, my wife and kids all like them and really go through the not-as-good ones from Chinatown, so Iāve got a long way to go before I have excess.
Just ate some Evercrisp this weekend. Apex Orchard at the Somerville winter farmerās market had them. These were pretty darn good. Iād say relative to Honeycrisp it was less explosively crisp, but still very crisp and juicy, had more flavor, and was extremely sweet. Little bit of watercore on about half of them. I like HC and think it is a great apple, but itās not my favorite; Iād rather have a good Goldrush or Golden Russet. I donāt know that Evercrisp is any better than Honeycrisp; different set of trade offs but certainly in the same niche. These were selling for $3.75/lb - ouch.
My kids liked them a lot. They basically tasted like candy. I measured the juice at 20 brix. Actually, I could barely eat a whole one without feeling like I was going to go into diabetic shock. With that much sugar, I think it needs significantly more acid to balance it out. Iāve eaten some 20 bix apples that I liked such as Wickson, but they had better balance with other elements besides sugar.
Gurneyās (like Stark Bros., Millerās, Henry Fields) arenāt owned by the family who built the brand. Forty years ago, they were a wonderful company. Today corporate owners in another country.
Frankly, northwoodswis4, it is too much work to keep up with who currently owns them. I suggest you Google and be prepared to spend half a day, and let me know if you actually find out.
But, here are some tidbits: In 1980 Gurneys was sold to a factor. āAMFAC, INCā. Through Lehman Brothers. Amfac had German ownersā¦whose stuff was confiscated in Hawaii during WWIIā¦but thatās getting off track
By 1991 the same conglomerate of corporate owners controlled Gurney;s, Henry Fields, Stark Bros., Brecks Bulbs, Jackson & Perkins roses, Spring Hill Nurseries, Michigan Bulb Coā¦and I donāt know what else.
I donāt have the interest to keep up with it. Suffice it to say the families who built the reputations of these companies are not the owners today! B
this is what it says on starkbros page: On the now-historic morning of September 11, 2001, a bankruptcy auction determined a new path for this great company, then 185 years old. Stark Broās was purchased by Cameron Brown and Tim Abair, and was once again under family ownership. It remains one of the oldest businesses in the country.
I had no idea this had happened. Glad these two men bought the company. I hate seeing old companies like Stark Bros go out of business. What mail order company owned Stark Bros before the auction?
Been eating Evercrisp and Pink Lady from a local grower (Apex) for the past month or so. Every week we go back to the farmersā market and buy about 20 total for the coming week. The last two weeks Pink Lady has been going kind of soft. Evercrisp still extremely crunchy. Next week the kids want only Evercrisp; they have taken to calling it āTwenty Sugar Appleā after we measured brix at 20 the first week we bought them.
@KlecknerOasis, @murky, @BobVance, et al,
Just want to hear from you guys about the progress of your Bakerās Delight and Crunch A Bunch.
Mine were planted in 2017 and are on super dwarf rootstocks. They are now a bit over 4 ft tall. This year, Bakerās Delight has several blooms (not open yet), mostly on tips of branches. Tip bearer?
Crunch A Bunch had flowers last year but I pinched them off. It has blooms this year, too. It looks like Crunchās flowers will open later than Bakerās. It hope they overlap. I donāt have many apple blooming this year.
I planted semi dwarf there about 6-7 ft tall they both bloomed pretty close together by a few days so I had some overlap. this year more than a few, I took all flowers off this year Iād like at least a couple more years before they set for me. Iād like my trees to be about 9-10 ft mark.
Where did you get semi-dwarf? I thought they were only available in tiny dwarf or essentially standard.
Mine is the standard. Itās healthy, but I didnāt water or fertilize much and donāt have a ton of growth yet. Iām not expecting flowers for at least a couple more years.
Last year I also got a Cosmic Crisp bareroot that I planted out late. Its a similar size although a year newer.
I planted at the same time as you on full size (MM111, I think) rootstock. There are no flowers on the two trees, but I made a backup graft of each and those grafts have flowers. Iāll post if I get any fruit from it this year.
When I said semi standard I should have said m111 which I believe is called semi standard. Itās gurneys standard tree which I think there was a discussion about what rootstocks gurneys uses. I was surprised that they bloomed this year but that whole new row I planted bloomed for some reason. Even spy-gold had 2 blooms on it this year.
Edit should have said semi dwarf. To much graveyard then day then graveyard not enough sleep. Sorry