Merry Teesdale wrote:After tasting hundreds of apple varieties for several years at the Cloud Mountain Fruit Festival in Whatcom County, Wa., I repeatedly settled on Elstar Apples as the best. They are crunchy, juicy, sweet, tart, complicated flavor and medium sized. Elstars, besides being heavenly eating, make prize winning pies, apple sauce with no sugar or spices needed, and are amazing dried.
Four years ago I got to taste an even better apple, Esopus spitzenburg which was Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple. I had one grafted and am growing it up now.
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Mary Wildfire wrote:I am in zone 6, and cold winters or short summers are not our problem (except for figs...) I suppose anyplace has the potential problem of warmups followed by frosts, but i read once that my area is especially prone to that pattern. WV produces a lot of apples and peaches, but they're all grown on the eastern panhandle, what I consider really Maryland. We have prunus serotina too...once I tried the bush cherries but had no luck and nor did anyone else I know who tried them. But I now have two goumis, also known as silver cherries--they're actually related to autumn and Russian olives but unlike those #$%%$#@, they won't take over your whole place. Last year I got a respectable harvest...they're sour, small and have soft pits, but they're bigger and sweeter than their kin, I'm sure they're full of antioxidants and they fix nitrogen so they're worth their space in my orchard even is the birds get all the fruit. I am perfectly satisfied with one sour cherry--cherries are not on the top of my list for desirable fruit. By the way another thing I tried was an American cranberry bush viburnum from Jung's which grew fast and is ornamental, but I got a few berries last year and they were horrible, not only sour but bitter--the birds aren't eating them--which likely means they're really the closely related European cranberry bush. So if you try that, don't get it from Jung's.
bill rittchen wrote:Here in NM I’ve been grafting a wide variety from a number of late blooming apples.id have to say winesap, Arkansas black, ginger gold, Cox’s orange pippin are on the top of my list but for a really unique apple with so many undertones of tangy, sour, sweet, and spice SALAME is Incredible!! Another note is Arkansas Black has a flavor that develops into deliciousness with a couple months in the root cellar.
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Crt Jakhel wrote:Enterprise is gloriously free of leaf problems but is much appreciated by the coddling moth. Good reliable cropper but not an amazing experience.
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Steve Thorn wrote:
bill rittchen wrote:Here in NM I’ve been grafting a wide variety from a number of late blooming apples.id have to say winesap, Arkansas black, ginger gold, Cox’s orange pippin are on the top of my list but for a really unique apple with so many undertones of tangy, sour, sweet, and spice SALAME is Incredible!! Another note is Arkansas Black has a flavor that develops into deliciousness with a couple months in the root cellar.
I couldn't find any info on a Salame apple, Bill, could it be spelled differently by any chance?
Molly Kay wrote:Maybe Salome. http://www.applejournal.com/useall11.htm Fourth down.
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Steve Thorn wrote:
Molly Kay wrote:Maybe Salome. http://www.applejournal.com/useall11.htm Fourth down.
I bet that's it, great find Molly!![]()
Molly Kay wrote:We have Cortland and Golden Delicious, and of those two I prefer the Goldens.
My absolute favorite apple that I've tasted (and admittedly I haven't tasted many of the hundreds/thousands) is the Ginger Gold, but I haven't had a home grown one. It's rated for zone 5, so I'm hoping to either move or work on creating a microclimate warm enough to grow my own GG some day.
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Steve Thorn wrote:
bill rittchen wrote:Here in NM I’ve been grafting a wide variety from a number of late blooming apples.id have to say winesap, Arkansas black, ginger gold, Cox’s orange pippin are on the top of my list but for a really unique apple with so many undertones of tangy, sour, sweet, and spice SALAME is Incredible!! Another note is Arkansas Black has a flavor that develops into deliciousness with a couple months in the root cellar.
I couldn't find any info on a Salame apple, Bill, could it be spelled differently by any chance?
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Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I found a Salome apple. Here is the link: https://www.saltspringapplecompany.com/salome/
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Stuart Sparber wrote:I first tasted Winesap apples at a Washington Park Green Market. They are sweet with a wine taste (red wine). They taste a little like a sweet winey Macintosh. Boy so good!
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Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I would prefer that this poll were conducted according to zones because an apple could be very good in one zone but not in another. With the interference of the climate, we have a real diaspora of evidence, but none too reliable.
Some folks have alluded to the fact that some apples are better for cider, others for applesauce. Should we instead list them by categories? best for out of hand, best for baking, best for sauce, best for storage? I realize that before too long, we may be having a poll that is so atomized as to be irrelevant. This is not really a criticism, as I applaud the effort to categorize. I'm not sure how to make the poll better either, I must say. I thought I would just put that on the table. It might be better if folks indicated their growing zone in the margin and the type of soil they have.
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J W Richardson wrote:Just finished off an apple crisp made with Arkansas Black. Not much to speak of right off the tree, but they still look great in February and are much tastier now. The tree is beyond vigorous.
I dried a bunch of Ashmead’s Kernal this fall, and it iwas so tasty! Here it is super intense flacvor wise, very acidic, my favorite so far. Most of my trees are still growing.
This area had commercial apple orchards until the 60’s, and along the Weiser River there are hundreds of feral seedling trees. Got into hard cider last year. A friend has a seedling tree that is a true spitter due to tannins, but the cider it makes is divine.
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gina kansas wrote:@Steve Thorn- I don't think Hudson tastes like a pear, but I am seriously turned off by the texture of pear skin and flesh and have a hard time getting past that to really enjoy the flavor (with the exception of my first home grown and peeled seckel pear this year- it was pretty darned smooth) I perhaps mistakenly believed Hudson was initially believed to be a pear because of appearances?
I agree that Holstein has a tropical flavor that is quite enjoyable.
I had never really thought about the russet apples being more disease resistant. I have noticed they are exceptionally healthy trees. I am incredibly fortunate to live in an area that really has no pressure from insects or disease and have never need to do more than manure the trees. With the obvious exception of peaches, I could write a novel on climate wiggling, spraying and crying.
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Every day above dirt is a good day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” — Abraham Lincoln
Every day above dirt is a good day
-- Wisdsom pursues me but I run faster.
“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” —Ronald Reagan
Marion Morris wrote:I love Pink Lady Apples
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