Apple Varieties

[Ernie]

This is a thread to discuss apples. Your favorites. Nutritional value. Availability. Etc.

We'll see if this gets our long lost Appleman back in circulation.

[Ernie]

I'm trying to find a website that lists 50+ apple varieties and their sugar content.

I can find a website that lists 17 varieties but it does not include some from an orchard near us.

[steve-in-kville]

I always went for Galas for eating. My coworkers got me hooked on Honeycrisp a few years ago. Add peanut butter and I'll eat about anything!

[wesleyb]

We have a small orchard up the road from us that grows a large variety of apples, around 20 I think. He doesn't have cold storage, so he just sells them as he picks them from September through mid November with 3 or 4 varieties available every weekend. I really enjoy trying all the different ones. I have an Ambrosia in my lunch today. They are very sweet and great for eating raw. We use a lot of Gold Rush for sauce and drying. They have a pretty high sugar content I think, but also high acidity. The very best apples I ever had were an heirloom variety called Albemarle Pippin. They weren't all that great right off the tree, but after being in storage in my crawl space for several months they were wonderful.

[RZehr]

More discussion on apples: http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... 6&start=10

[Ken]

I recently put in some Cosmic Crisp trees along with a Melrose apple tree in my back yard that I intend to Espalier into a hedge along the edge of my property. I'm having a hard time keeping the deer away and will probably have to wrap them in chicken wire until they are larger. No fruit yet, I just planted them last spring.

Cosmic Crisp is a new variety developed here in Washington that is just starting to break into the grocery stores and farmer's markets. Melrose is an older variety that originated from Ohio. Both are tart crisp eating apples.

We have an old antique cider press that my father restored years ago. Every year we have a big community cider making party. I usually drive out to Kiyokawa orchards in Hood River https://kiyokawafamilyorchards.com/ and bring back about 10-15 bushel of cider apples which are basically just their "seconds" that have blemishes or are misshapen. So they are a bin of 20+ different varieties and the blend of varieties tends to make the cider better anyway. They usually have at least 20+ different varieties of apples for sale at any one time, many of them pretty obscure.

[Bootstrap]

I used to love Northern Spy and Cortland when I lived in rural New York. And a lot of apple trees of unknown origin from various fields and woods, which often had great flavor. We referred to them by the place of the tree, or the people who owned the property.

For years, shelf life seemed to matter more than flavor to grocery stores. Recently, new apple varieties actually taste good, bringing back flavors we knew growing up in new varieties. That's been kind of great, if disconcerting. I feel the same way about sweet corn that actually tastes good a week after it was picked.

[Ken]

I used to love Northern Spy and Cortland when I lived in rural New York. And a lot of apple trees of unknown origin from various fields and woods, which often had great flavor. We referred to them by the place of the tree, or the people who owned the property.

For years, shelf life seemed to matter more than flavor to grocery stores. Recently, new apple varieties actually taste good, bringing back flavors we knew growing up in new varieties. That's been kind of great, if disconcerting. I feel the same way about sweet corn that actually tastes good a week after it was picked.

Hopefully next they can work on store-bought tomatoes that actually taste good too!

[mike]

I used to love Northern Spy and Cortland when I lived in rural New York. And a lot of apple trees of unknown origin from various fields and woods, which often had great flavor. We referred to them by the place of the tree, or the people who owned the property.

For years, shelf life seemed to matter more than flavor to grocery stores. Recently, new apple varieties actually taste good, bringing back flavors we knew growing up in new varieties. That's been kind of great, if disconcerting. I feel the same way about sweet corn that actually tastes good a week after it was picked.

Hopefully next they can work on store-bought tomatoes that actually taste good too!

[steve-in-kville]

Hopefully next they can work on store-bought tomatoes that actually taste good too!

Can't beat a homegrown tomato, that's for sure. Before I left for work this morning, my wife mentioned there is a high likelihood we're having BLT's for supper tonight. Barely 5am and I'm already hungry for 'em.

One local grocery store has "tomato on the vine" which is one of the best store-bought tomatoes I can find. Price isn't bad, either.