North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Michael Glassford" <glassfordm@hotmail.com>]

Hi! I'm a new member both of NAFEX and of this mailing list. A little
background on me: I live near Bangor, Maine, in zone 5A, on 2 acres. At the
moment I have 3 apple trees, 1 peach tree, several grape vines, 2 tiny
filbert trees, and about 50 strawberry plants (half June-bearing and half
day-neutral), as well as a vegetable and herb garden. I hope to increase the
number of apple trees over the next couple of years to about a dozen, as
well as add another peach tree or two, a couple of pears, a couple of plums,
some elderberries, maybe a few more grape vines, possibly a couple of other
kinds of nut trees (I'd love to find a small pecan that would produce well
in zone 4-5), and perhaps some other less widely grown fruits.

To prepare for increasing the number of apple trees, I've been trying to
taste as many different kinds of apples as I can to see what I really like.

I recently tasted two new (to me) apples, Fireside and Regent, and was
impressed with both. To me, both were better than apples that appear to be
much more popular with amateur fruit growers, and I was wondering:

1) Why are they not more popular?

2) What else can you tell me about them (including how you like them, tree
size, growth habit, problems, etc.)?


Thanks,

Mike