Yes! We ate last fruit last night and it is kind of softer with a hint of juiciness. More colorful interior. No red rind like Indian Free. No rot or loss of quality. Could have stayed longer. Picture below.
For my taste and with this late in the season (I bet it can stay on tree in my well into January) it is something I would like to have. I see strong evidence of WH origin with something else.
Indian Free has been around a long time and that fruit looks so much more like that than Heath. If it isn’t high acid, than I can see it being a red child of Heath but if the fruit has a lot of acid zing you can be pretty sure momma was IF.
Having lived for many years in San Jose, I can well believe fruit ripens there ahead of what DWN says. SJ is hemmed in by mountains and really cooks in the summer, but it can vary with cloud cover. Keep in mind that DWN lists different ripening dates for Home Orchard customers (dates for Hickman, CA - near Modesto) than for their commercial customers (dates for the Fresno area). Fresno, being further south, gets much warmer and fruit ripens earlier. The distance is only about 90 miles as the crow flies, but from what I see on the DWN site, there is a 10 day difference in ripening dates. Here in an example using Galaxy Peach since it appears in both catalogs.
Conversely, Hollister is 47 miles south of San Jose but can be at least 10 degrees cooler due to summer breezes. In my experience, our harvest dates are at least 10 days later than Modesto.
We are about 15 miles N of SJ with intense microclimate because we at the narrow strip in Mission Foothill which gets strange mix of marine and inland air movement. Closest to Sunset zone 16. We get more chill and more heat than average even 1/2 mile away in city center. In terms of growing, pretty nice if handled right. The difference in ripening schedule between DW Home Orchard and commercial makes sense.