A few weeks ago some folks in the area called and asked us to do some bench grafting for them. They’d bought some rootstocks and cut scions from an old tree on the farm that had good storage apples but was in bad shape. But they’d never grafted. We’d never bench grafted but there wasn’t anyone else so we did (stressful doing someone else’s! And I’d much rather field graft…). Then to my surprise she brought up some of the apples from the root cellar. Wow! I know some apples are good keepers but I’d never had a homegrown apple in April. And they were good. Tasted, well, like an apple, some tart, some sweet. Maybe a little soft but pretty decent really. It was a real treat. I happily brought home the leftover scions.
This is a very old farm, tree likely early 1900’s. there was a large orchard nearby back then. So I’m guessing it’s not a chance seedling. Lots of those around but nothing that tastes this good. The apples look like some of the photos I’ve seen of Baldwin. Anyone have an idea?
