A few months ago i drove down to a family reunion at a farm on the northern edge of the Catskills in NY. So many apple trees along the road, just totally loaded. It was unbelievable. Ill be driving through again next week with a picker pole and some permethrined clothes. Im hoping to fill buckets - motorized my apple grinder this year and hoping to lay down many gallons. If I find anything interesting Ill post up photos and descriptions. Ill also drop pins so i can find them in Feb.
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I’ve been dog-earing apple trees around my area that I’d like to use for grafting practice this coming spring. Here’s one of the candidates! It checks all my boxes for a fresh eating apple ( good tart/sweet balance, nice crunch, juicy flesh) But I suspect that it’s got what what it takes to make a solid baking apple, too. I’m hoping to test out that theory with a pie or two this weekend.
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I’m blown away by how pest and disease free the apples are on this pippin tree I’ve been eyeing along a local roadside fence line where it is peaking out the side of a hedge of conifers. Many of the characteristics make me think it’s a seedling of ‘Red Delicious’, but I think it still tastes pretty nice regardless. The skin is VERY thick so some people wouldn’t like it (I like thick skin though). The flesh is such a clean white and also somewhat crisp and juicy with a mild sweetness with just enough acid to balance. I suspect they will be mealy textured after aging (like ‘Red Delicious’, but despite that I think it’s too good a tree to not clone so I’ll be collecting scion this winter.
It was loaded with apples this year, but many had already fallen by the time I took pictures today. Almost all the apples on the ground still looked pristine though.
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They are very pretty apples. Try getting them a little earlier next year and see if they still are a little spongy.
There are two shopping centers with trees along the inner roads going into the shopping center stores. I think they made a mistake with a few of the trees. Most all are ornamental fruit trees, usually cherry, but a couple of the became actual apple trees. One is a Yellow Delicious. The groundhogs and Canadian geese eat the ones that fall on the ground. It is funny to watch the geese trying to bite the apple , pushing it around with their bill. The other one is a reddish apple of some sort. They are doing construction in that area and that reddish tree was behind high chain link fence and locked up to protect the construction equipment in that area.
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@39thparallel --You know about the huge Early Golden persimmon tree in front of Strong Hall, yes? (though that’s usually kept pretty well cleaned up). But there are also a number of persimmon trees in town which aren’t, one being on the corner of Maine St. and 12th, and another on the 500 block of Mississippi St. Both of those used to be in my dog-walking routes, and I’d pick up delicious ripe persimmons off the grass every day.
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Strong Hall is the source of my Early Golden trees. Thanks for the tips on other persimmon locations! I will check them out. I’m always interested seeing persimmon trees especially named varieties. The Lawrence Fruit Tree Project has a number named varieties planted along Burrow’s Creek at their community orchard and at the splash park: Kassandra, Nakita’s Gift, Meader, Prairie Star Prairie Sun.
I hear @JSnow may have the largest collection of named persimmon varieties in production locally.
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Did some apple foraging over weekend in anticipation of making cider. Ill detail a few interesting finds here as time allows.
First up is this guy:
The tree it came from was loaded with thick strands of pretty pinkish red crabs:
Filling half a five gallon bucket did not take long!
The apples themselves tasted quite sweet, with quite a bit of the rich almost savory quality Steven Edholm has documented (was lucky enough to taste BITE ME! this year as a reference). There was plenty of tannin, mostly the soft astringent type, but with just a hint of bitterness. The flesh was light yellow and had that wet translucence common to many crabs. It was very juicy compared to other apples I put in the garlic press prior to getting a refractometer reading. I was surprised it only measured 11 brix, despie the fairly sweet taste so it must be low acid.
Overall I dont know if this is quite single varietal worthy due to the low sugar, but one I definitely will want in future blends and have marked.
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Apple was slightly tart, top part was sweeter. Left top on counter for several hours before I finished it and it did not turn brown. Only got a few apples as they were very high in a tree that is growing along a river. Hope to get some scions in spring.
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This next apple was a weird one.
It was about the size of a golfball.
Upon biting into it the flavor had a very strong banana note, sweetness…and some bitterness/hard tannin. Not a ton it, but definitely there. Thats something I might expect if it was unripe, but most of the apples on the tree had already droppped, so Im guessing the bitterness is a feature not a bug. Just such a weird combination between that and the banana.
The flesh was fine grained, fairly crisp and moderately juicy. Brix reading was 14.5 - pretty respectable. The tree looked healthy and the fruit relatively clean.
I would like to make a small batch of cider from just this variety. It has the tannin, the aromatics and the sugar to potentially make something interesting. I will plan to grab some scionwood from this tree, so if anyone is interested let me know. Ill call it Banana Bitter for now.
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