How about Ilona and Orangered this year?
I am just now seeing your plum “wine” project and am fascinated and cannot wait to hear how it turns out! Seems like you’d have to cut the premature plums open to get much infusion. Also, knowing how bitter.unpleasant my premature plums taste, its hard to imagine the infused sugar water being very good! ha Last but not least, seems like the sugar, water and fruit would just ferment and/or spoil if allowed to sit for a long period of time.
Please don’t take any of my thinking as me saying this won’t work…I certainly know nothing about it whatsoever but am just curious to see how it turns out. I wish you the best. Don’t foget to keep us posted…
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Orangered is long gone, it ripened in May, in the same time window as Nicole (see photo in post 16 in this thread). Very good, but maybe 10 fruits on entire tree. Ilona graft didn’t set any fruit again.
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No water is involved, plums and sugar are covered by pure vodka. We’ll see how it works out.
Ahhhh…got it! That changes things a lot. I actually did a lot of google searching and reading about this after seeing your project, and not only does it sound like you are doing it right (which you don’t need me to tell you!) but I’m more interested than ever in this. So thanks for sharing and I can’t wait to hear and see how yours turns out. Thanks, Stan.
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This morning’s haul of stone fruit. Apricots: Afghanistan, Lasgerdi Mashhad, Le Creme, Spark’s Mammoth, Turkey, Mira and a couple of other Anya seedlings. Plums: Catherine Bunnell, July Green Gage, Opal, unknown yellow myrobalan.
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Yum, yum yum! I’m so curious about the Le Creme apricot? Any tasting notes/comparison to the afghanistan and anya seedlings? I can’t wait for my white apricot trees to be full sized enough to taste compare!
Definitely want to hear how that plum spirit turns out; super creative way to use thinned fruit! Have you ever done this with apricots?
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Le Creme has the same texture, flavor, and aroma as other white apricots such as Afghanistan, Moniqui, and Lasgerdi Mashhad. The shape is a bit different (more roundish/stocky) and the size smaller (but the size estimate is based on a sample of one fruit, so it’s not a definitive conclusion).
Anya seedlings are orange apricot, they have a different flavor profile.
No, I have not, this is the first time I’m trying this with any fruit.
Mira apricots (Anya seedling W08) started ripening in earnest (the heat wave we’re having now probably accelerated their ripening). This one is a very consistent producer. Freestone and excellent flavor.
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More of apricot taste testing results from Jun 18-19.
Paviot, Peche de Nancy, Blenheim, Losse Blenheim — Very similar to each other, above average in size. Not good in my climate (and the current heat wave with 109 F temps is definitely not helping) — rotten inside, underripe outside, mediocre flavor.
Redsweet — Reddish skin but otherwise pretty much the same story as above.
Florilege — Just one fruit so difficult to judge, flavor ok, but not special, perhaps a bit underripe.
Supkhani — Very, very sweet. Too sweet. Not my favorite for fresh eating, better used for drying. Nice looking, pale yellow, ovoid fruit.
Hemskirke — Very nice flavor, a bit reminiscent of Moorpark but still distinct. Very enjoyable. No sign of pit burn or rot inside the pit cavity. Average to below average in size.
Golden Sweet — Very good. I would adore this apricot if I didn’t have better ones. 
Moorpark — Excellent as usual. Not too sweet, but there’s something special about its flavor. A very good and consistent producer for me.
Mirsanjeli Late — One of the best, good size and fantastic flavor. Produced very well in 2019 but not as abundant the last two years.
Anya and Anya seedlings Mira (W08) and F06 (unnamed yet) — All have excellent flavor, very sweet (but not cloyingly sweet as Supkhani), juicy, top rate. There’s definitely a lot of similarity in flavor between them but each one has its own distinct notes. Anya is medium size but the largest of these three, elliptical to ovoid, pale orange without blush. Mira is a bit smaller, spherical, orange with a strong carmine blush. F06 is the smallest of the three, ovoid, very pale orange, no blush. Mira and F06 are the best producers for me this year (Mira has been setting very well for three years in a row, for F06 this is the first big production year).
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Thanks for the report. I liked your website very much. Please tell me which is your favorite Mirabelle.
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I have a hard time distinguishing between them, they’re too similar. My wife loves Mirabelles so she eats most of them. I prefer gages that ripen approximately in the same time window.
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It is so nice to get unbiased, first hand comparisons of different varieties! This kind of honest appraisal is so difficult to get elsewhere. Seems like nursery descriptions are all designed to sell you something. On this site, people are honestly trying to help one another. How cool is that!
Stan, you are definitely the Apricot King. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Mira and F06 (Anya seedlings), sweeter than candy:
Moorpark, exquisite flavor:
Blenheim, affected by pit burn from the heat, the inside is cooked, the outside is still underripe:
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Unfortunate about the pit burn.
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Tart Cherry: Earlier in the season we had some Carmine Jewel, Juliet, and Balaton. This is most of the Lutowka harvest, picked today (June 23):
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The apricot season is winding down, tomorrow I will likely pick the last few fruits still on the trees. Some notes on late season varieties.
Moorpark harvest was great this year. Here’s a photo from a few days ago, I picked as many for several days in a row, and overall the harvest lasted for about 15 days.
Mira’s harvest ended about a week ago, these apricots are as sweet as one can ever get. We had enough to vacuum pack and freeze some:
Hoyt Montrose, looks nice but the flavor has been meh for the first two years it fruited. Maybe next year it will taste better.
Tilton, just before I turned them into jam:
Tardif de Bordaneil, a few fruits from a couple of last year’s grafts. A nice flavor.
Also, I had one and only fruit from a last year’s Germab-5 graft. Ate it too fast to make a photo. A truly outstanding flavor! I hope to have many more of these in the years to come.
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Have been eating Bavay plums since yesterday. I can’t believe they ripened this early! Just in time at the end of the apricot season. It will be a good harvest of gage plums this year.
Also, Gravenstein apples are staring to come in, which is about a normal timing for them in my area.
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