[Homestead] Apples revisited
Akka Homestead
akkabhomestead at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 5 13:06:52 EDT 2008
On my way back in from picking blueberries-yet another gallon for the freezer and the bushes just keep on bearing... I noticed that about half of my Spokane Beauty apples were gone! That only means one thing...DEER. So, I reached up and picked the largest apple on the tree and brought it inside. I took some pictures of it for future reference. It is not entirely red yet, but it supposed to need a few more weeks. Apparently the deer did not think so.. I also brought in an Arkansas Black for comparison. I can definitely see why it is called Black as the red is so dark that it is almost black. I'll try them later. My big surprise is that I noticed that on my Red Delicious tree there was a 'twin' that I had missed on the thinning...One twin was large, one was misshapen and small. I plucked the small one and just for kicks, tasted it. Oh my gosh, was it GOOD.. I never liked the Red Delicious store apples-too mealy and bland. This
apple had crunch, and it was juicy and sweet. I can't even imagine what the other twin would taste like.
A few months back we decided to try different apple varieties from the store. Of all the varieties I could find,Gala, Fujis, Pink Lady, Granny Smiths, both Deliciouses and others, the Pink Lady was our favorite, but this Red Delicious tops that, hands down. And this variety is supposed to be picked in late September, not early September...can you imagine the sweetness it will have in a few weeks?
Now, what to do with all those RD apples...making applesauce seems like a waste of a good eating apple...I'm not sure how it would work for pies...might be okay. I don't think this variety is a super keeper, so I have to do something.
More later as I taste test the Arkansas black and the Spokane Beauty apples which are a month early.
Akka
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