John,
I lifted stems of both apples, they refused to come off. So, I left them alone. I will pick one each this Sat. This year, everything in my yard has been late, a week or two late, in fact.
The apples look pretty.
Baker’s Delight.
Crunch A Bunch.
They look great
I agree, they look great.
I just bought some apples called “Rosalee” from the local fruit farm (Rosalee is aka MAIA11 from Midwest Apple Improvement Association). They had a crisp and juicy Honeycrisp-type texture which was as good or better than HC. Very light, very crisp, very juicy. 15 brix with a very good apple flavor.
The apples I tried were medium size while the Honeycrisps sold next to them were softball size.
Official description :
MAIA11 (plant patent PP24,579) harvests 2 weeks after Golden Delicious. MAIA11 apples that meet quality requirements will be marketed as Rosalee®. MAIA11 fruit has a clean, floral taste with spectacular texture. The parents of MAIA11 are Honeycrisp & Fuji.
From the few samples I tried, “spectacular texture” was an appropriate description.
More info:
This apple is a Fuji-Honeycrisp cross that ripens along with Golden Delicious. “It has a long harvest window,” Doud said.
The apple’s texture is Honeycrisp- reminiscent. “In storage, it does not lose texture,” he said. “If you have a nice, clean storage, Rosalee will have a nice clean taste.”
So far, growers have yet to encounter bitterpit or water core but have noticed higher than average incidence of storage rot. “It’s not as bad as Honeycrisp but similar to Golden Delicious,” Doud said.
Rosalees offer no resistance to fire blight and have a low level of scab resistance, said Mitch Lynd, a retired grower and MAIA member, whose family still farms a 175-acre orchard and runs a farm market near Pataskala, Ohio.
Trees have low to moderate vigor and require chemical and sometimes follow-up hand thinning. “They are not nearly as stubborn as Fuji or Golden Delicious, but not self-regulating like EverCrisp,” said Lynd.
The medium- to medium-large-sized apple grows to 2.75 to 3.75 inches.
I’d like to report that yesterday evening, to my amazement, our resident groundhog was trying to take the cage that I put around Baker’s Delight down. In general, groundhogs are not very bold when someone is watching it. This one was quite daring. It ran and hid under our shed when I yelled at it and came right back 2 more times.
I went out to secure the cage and put bird netting around the outside of the cage to make it harder for the groundhog to reach the cage (just to annoy it). By then, it was dark so it did not come back.
I set a trap first thing this morning. I know its path so I set it right in its path. My hubby texted me later a pic of the Fat Chuck in the cage (almost could not fit in it). I am overjoyed (for now). I don’t know how many more of them are there. This is the fourth one caught this year, in addition to two raccoons, two opossums and several squirrels.
Hopefully, I will be able to report on BD and CaB this weekend after one more week of ripening time.
<I wonder if they make cages big enough for bears……?>
The first Baker’s Delight dropped today. So, I picked another one for a photo op.
Cut up the 2nd one, it was OK, nothing stood out. The texture was not as crisp as the one I ate last week. The one last week also tasted far better.
While Baker Delight is an OK apple in its first year, Crunch a Bunch is a very impressive one for its debut. It has the crunch and a good balance between tart and sweetness. This one drooped on 10/18. It did not fully ripen judging from the color of the seeds.
I think if ripens properly, its sweetness may goes up, too.
My tree is in a partial shade (I am limited on land). I believe in full sun, it would ripen earlier than mid Oct and taste more fully, which makes it a great replacement for Gold Rush in zone 6 or colder.
I will keep some in a fridge to see how long it will last. I recommend Crunch A Bunch.
@I just harvested these large Fuji apples. There are lots left on the trees and those fruits will be dry later when I have free time.
Tony
How ripe those are? My one and only Fuji (this is the trend this year) won’t ripen until later.
The seeds are black and easy to pull off the trees. I guessed they are ripe or close to ripe with good sugar content.
@mamuang, those are very pretty apples. Are they “Baker’s Delight” because they are better for pies?
@Bear_with_me,
Now that you mentioned it, that could be why Baker’s Delight got its name. I am not a baker so I will ask my better half to see if he could make an apple crisp or something. I generally like to eat fresh fruit.
I picked one last week. Wasn’t ripe enough. I’ll wait till Nov 1. Only have a few on grafted branch.
@BobVance,
How’s your remaining Crunch A Bunch?
@Johnthecook and I think they are very good and have inherited their parent (Gold Rush)’s good genes.
Absolutely
It got eaten by a critter of some sort. That usually happens when there is a single piece of fruit that you are watching…The lone red fleshed pear met the same fate.
Bob,
I found remnant of my Crunch A Bunch eaten to the core inside the cage today. Then, another one was dropped outside the cage. This 2nd one had a chunk bitten off. I rescued and cleaned it.
It was a very good apple. This one ripened more so it tasted sweeter but the acid was definitely there. Squirrels know which ones ripened.
Looks soooo good Tony!
