Best tasting home grown Apple varieties

Crt Jakhel wrote:William's pride is a favorite at our place. It's a summer apple so it doesn't last long off the tree and you have to pick it at the right time. But when you do hit the sweet spot it's glorious.

Carla Burke wrote: Arkansas Black is a great apple, imho. Not only excellent flavor and crispness, but it also stores incredibly well, lasting months, if stored properly.

Chris Holcombe wrote:I would say my favorites are wickson, newtown pippin, and golden gem. I grafted all of them and should have the first home grown ones next year.

Eric Thompson wrote:Among my favorites are karmijn de sonnaville, northern spy, and winesap.  These are all great fresh.

Travis Johnson wrote:So on my farm, which was covered with apple orchards until the 1940's when my Grandfather tipped the trees over, dug up the roots and planted potatoes in these old orchards. BUT many remain. One tree is unique among the trees that are also unique. In other words it is THE only tree because its apple is yellow. What variety it is...I do not know. It grows on the old Hamlin Place so I assume Hamlin grafted the trees together that made it all its own.

Travis Johnson wrote:In Maine this was a common practice, and the owner of Fedco Trees would often tour the Maine Countryside looking for these odd apple varieties. There is something like 200 varieties in my county alone. I contacted him to come out as he is only 15 miles away, but at the time was going through cancer and did not have the strength. But the tree is still here, it tastes really good, and is really old!

Chris Holcombe wrote:Yeah wickson is very sweet but also has a high acid content. It’s good. My daughter ate the ones I purchased down to the core. It’s hard to describe the others. Newtown pippin has an interesting perfume to it and golden gem has a bit of a nutty taste to it I’ve heard. I remember newtown pippin having an excellent aftertaste.

gina kansas wrote:Out of the 28 apples my DH and I planted my favorite home grown apple is Hudson Golden Gem, Holstein rates second. For pies only King will do.  Any home grown apple beats the pants off the sorry excuse for human food that store bought apples are.

gina kansas wrote:Out of the 28 apples my DH and I planted my favorite home grown apple is Hudson Golden Gem, Holstein rates second. For pies only King will do.  Any home grown apple beats the pants off the sorry excuse for human food that store bought apples are.

Charli Wilson wrote:I'm a fan of 'ashmeads kernal', stores really well and tastes great even after a few months- I always think it tastes like sweets. The apple looks rather poor- kinda small and lumpy green russet, but it tastes amazing.

Steve Thorn wrote:
That's awesome, I've heard it tastes really good! Is it like a super sweet taste or like a fruity candy taste?

Charli Wilson wrote:I think it tastes like candy- I've heard people compare it to peardrops (though I don't think I've ever tried pear drops).

Eric Thompson wrote:Among my favorites are karmijn de sonnaville, northern spy, and winesap.  These are all great fresh.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I got Enterprise, Liberty and Freedom but they have not borne fruit yet. Their reputation is they are relatively trouble free.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:My absolute favourite all round apple is Bramley Seedling. This apple has the most superb flavour in crumbles, pies and sauces, amd if left to go mellow yellow (I was always convinced as a child that the song was about bramleys!) They eat beautifully.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bramley_apple

Second best is the Cox's Orange Pippin, which we only ever had at Christmas when I was young (we used to have the cheapest available the rest of the year)
And they were sooooo tasty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox%27s_Orange_Pippin

Needless to say I have planted both in my finca and I am hoping it doesn't get too hot here for them.

Enjoy!

L. Tims wrote:Anyone know of some nice thick-skinned storage/cooking varieties, that would probably be not very nice to eat fresh? It's hard to find information on those, haha. I get the sense that older varieties and russets are the thing to look at but haven't found much in the way of specifics.

Mary Wildfire wrote:I live in West Virginia, where we have plenty of moisture and plenty of summer heat and winter cold, which means our big challenge is disease. I've had a small orchard for ten years; I've never sprayed anything, am not willing to use any chemicals, so disease resistance was my top priority.

My three trees are Goldrush, Enterprise and Priscilla. Priscilla is ripe in July or August and is not bad for a summer apple. I prefer hard, sweet, sour, late apples; Enterprise and Goldrush both fit this category. Goldrush is my favorite; I don't know as it tastes better than Enterprise but it was very early, bears nearly every year regardless of conditions and must be heavily thinned as it sets so heavily. One of its parents is Golden Delicious which it mostly resembles, but it has more flavor and character.

My neighbor has Arkansas Black, I like that one too and have a freshly grafted start; I also put in Winecrisp a couple years ago but it's not growing fast--the deer are picking on it. And, you didn't ask but I have a Surefire sour cherry--you only need one of those, and Surefire is bred for late bloom--it actually blooms after my peaches, pears and apples.

Mary Wildfire wrote:The thing about the Surefire cherry is that my area is really prone to early spring warmups, followed by later spring frosts. So late bloom is important in a cherry. From what I've read, sweet cherries are much harder; you need two, for one thing, unlike sour cherries which are self-fruitful. Also the sweet cherries are more prone to sunscald in winter (maybe not a problem in NC) and I think diseases--as for birds, with either one you pretty much need to throw a net over the tree, Mine is about ten feet tall so this is still possible with poles and a helper.

Mary Wildfire wrote:I forgot to mention that Goldrush is possibly the best storage apple in existence, able to maintain quality for six months or more under good conditions. According to what I've read; I've never had enough to last more than into maybe January. My trees are semi-dwarfs, like ten feet tall.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:Folks might want to indicate their growing zone. Mine is 3-4 and I don't spray.

Also, an apple variety might be great for some applications but not so good for another: I make pies, applesauce and I like to dry mine for snacking. I'd rather not freeze them: I'll convert them to juice/ cider rather than use the energy. This year, I've gotten so many Gala apples that I decided to make hard cider [applejack]

To make applesauce Cortland can't be beat: They don't brown. But they are only so so out of hand.
Honeycrisp is great out of hand, but the tree is a little touchy and it bakes hard, which is a feature my husband does not care for. It would be terrible for applesauce unless you like it very lumpy!
Wealthy is more of a cooking apple but if you have a lot of rain during harvesting, they may split on the tree.
Sweet Sixteen has a wonderful aromatic flavor but seems to be preferred by the deer: They browsed it heavily and I had to put protection on it. The bottom branches still get nipped but as it grows bigger, it should get better. I nicked it pretty badly with a lawnmower once, so it is growing a little crooked.
Haralson is quite juicy, with a little tartness and has a reputation for making great cider. Once I start getting enough to make cider, I'll let you know: It only had 3 apples this year [first year].
Yellow Transparent gave me her first fruit this year. Good taste but smaller than the catalog indicated. They disappeared pretty fast.
Wolf river is a Wisconsin heirloom apple and is monstrously big. Its calling is for drying. When going hunting you might want to take dried apples: If you don't dry them to the crispy stage, they are soft and won't make noise, but keep them in the fridge.
I got Enterprise, Liberty and Freedom but they have not borne fruit yet. Their reputation is they are relatively trouble free.
Red Gravenstein and Duchess of Oldenburg never seem to survive here, so I quit planting them.

Mary Wildfire wrote:The thing about the Surefire cherry is that my area is really prone to early spring warmups, followed by later spring frosts. So late bloom is important in a cherry. From what I've read, sweet cherries are much harder; you need two, for one thing, unlike sour cherries which are self-fruitful. Also the sweet cherries are more prone to sunscald in winter (maybe not a problem in NC) and I think diseases--as for birds, with either one you pretty much need to throw a net over the tree, Mine is about ten feet tall so this is still possible with poles and a helper.