I don’t think I’ve had many good Macs that were bought somewhere. We had a tree when I was young, those Macs were great for fresh eating when picked at peak flavor and while still firm. Best applesauce ever too.
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Yes. They are really time sensitive it would seem (small peak window). I love the flavor of them. Make a good apple juice.
I ordered cocoa pods from Puerto Rico a week or so ago. I planted up a bunch of the seeds and some are starting to sprout. I also have a 4 foot (or taller) papaya plant in my garden from fruit/seed i must have tossed in the garden this past spring. Going to be sad to see it melted with the first frost. I love papaya. Some people don’t.
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I’m glad to hear of another Midwesterner attempting to grow cacao. Do you have any specific plan for it (i.e., are you going to try to coax it to fruit?)
I have cinnamon, green tea, vanilla and coffee going for a few years now so i want to add a cocoa. My green tea is about read to flower.
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Love it! I haven’t tried growing tea or vanilla since moving from FL, but I have a 1-year-old cacao seedling that is going strong indoors. If it ever flowers, I’m going to try to hand pollinate on the chance that it’s self-fertile. (If not, I’ll need to order more seeds, haha).
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Picked 5 gallons of Red Rock today. It’s a variety Todd Parlo at Walden Heights Nursery found and propagated. Very crunchy, crispy, juicy, and sweeter than tart. Better than plenty of commercially available apples. Brix = 15
About the largest Liberty I could find in comparison to some average Red Rock
Also picked some Prairie Spy to make apple slices with. Got enough in the freezer for a few crisps. I need to make more.
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They almost look like a mcintosh.
Tomato season might be about done. I’m going to maybe let one plant stay going if it has some near ripening fruits. Most of the maters have rotted since we haven’t been keeping up with them. I have to add back a cherry tomato or 3 next year. Didn’t have any this year and my daughter prefers them for salsa. Maybe sungold and something else.
Does it make sense to lay black plastic yet this fall?
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Red Rock does resemble McIntosh in appearance, but that’s about it for similarity. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s some Mac heritage in there somewhere
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do you like red rock for baking or is it mostly a fresh eating apple? disease resistance?
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I haven’t baked any yet, but I’d guess they’d be very good in pies/crisps/baked apples. They are very good for fresh eating, and they’re supposed to be a good storage apple. This is my first year with a nice crop of them. I just added some to a batch of cider I made this morning as they’re quite juicy.
I do spray most of my trees, so my take on disease resistance could be different from a no spray person. It’s a very clean grower here. I don’t think Todd sprays at Walden Heights so he’d be a good info source.
Edit…just brix tested today’s cider = 21. Really tasty
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Almost 5 gallons of Honeygold. I put 12-15 in a grocery bag before remembering to take a pic. I’ve got another 4-5 gallons in a tub, yet to be washed. Sweet, juicy, crunchy, and not a lot of flavor. Most will go in a late sweet cider mix. Some are free of sooty blotch/flyspeck and some aren’t.
About 3 gallons of what was supposed to be Jonsib crab from GRIN. A buddy maybe 45 minutes from me got the same variety from them. Clearly not a crab. These are similar to Jonathan to my taste buds, but this year they’re sweeter than previous years. I’m guessing due to plenty of rain for most of the growing season? These are firm and crunchy with a decent balance between sweet and tart. Much more flavor than Honeygold. I don’t spray this tree. Most of these are getting cut up and frozen for future baked goods. 16 oz pop bottle for size reference
The extent of my Tolman Sweet harvest. This has been an under performing variety for me. I have grafted a few more and last year picked one up from SLN on Antonovka. I really like this weird variety, I wish it grew better for me.
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I have a Tolman Sweet in my orchard as well. I like this apple variety- like you said a little weird variety. I had a lot of apples on it this year. Up to this year it was a lackluster producer. No more than about half a dozen apples. I could not get a good feel for how this apple really tastes. This year I had enough to get a good review of them. I like them. Sort of an odd tasting apple yet it does taste good. It is a nice shaped tree so as long as it keeps producing a decent amount of fruit I will keep it in my orchard. It was iffy up to this year.
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About 7 gallons of Keepsake. This is most of the yield. Keepsake has taken it’s time to produce, and it hasn’t been a heavy bearer(yet). My wife and I really like them after a few weeks in the crisper. That’s where most of these are headed. The “seconds” will go to sweet cider.
My Wickson harvest. In about a month these have gone from a brix of 10 to 15. Next year I’ll let them hang longer.
The rest of the Honeygolds that I’ll pick. There’s likely another 5-8 gallons hanging. Those will be deer chow. The cleanest of the bunch are going to the food pantry tomorrow, along with some more varieties from the fridge.
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my wickson produced 3 fruit that are still on the tree. i need to get up there and pick them. they are about the size of clarks crab.
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I was disappointed with Sweet 16 when I picked them in September. Juicy, crunchy, but not a lot of flavor. That was about a month ago. I just took one out of the fridge and holy cow have they changed with some storage. Still juicy, and crunchy…but the flavor was excellent. Definitely got a hint of cherry candy. A very tasty apple for sure. I look forward to eating the rest of them. I should graft another tree
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Good to know about the Sweet 16. I have been going back and forth as to put one in my orchard or not. Perhaps knowing they taste better when put in storage may make have a graft of one of my trees would be worth it.
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Picked a Roadedge and Haralson.
Cleaned up a bit
Both showing watercore
Roadedge brix =15. Haralson =14
Roadedge is dense, sweet, crunchy, juicy, and with a definite pear note. Its as good for fresh eating as Honeygold IMO.
Haralson is tart/sub acid at first, but there is sweetness in there. Dense, crunchy, juicy, highly flavored. Not my favorite for fresh eating but not bad. Its supposed to be as good an apple for baking/cooking as there is.
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Tolman Sweet brix = 17
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We had our first fireside apple today. Man, is that a good eating apple. I think it’s begging to be dipped in homemade caramel. Really glad we grafted it a few years back.
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