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  • From: Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Best Apples Article
  • Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:05:41 -0400

Michael, thanks for posting your list. I thought I would chime in on a couple apples I have found doing very well for me in Maryland. This is for the fresh eating category.

Wickson - these small apples have a pronounced apricot/peach overtone in my climate, and also have a unique hard-but-juicy flesh. They are something like a plum in terms of the sweet/sour balance -- lots of both! Its one of those apples that you keep nibbling on the core to get every last bite from. My tree is susceptible to cedar apple rust but no other problems. The best taste I have found with very late harvest - I am picking them now.

Kidd's Orange Red - this is a Cox child and a Gala parent. It has a more "grown up" taste than Gala with some darker aromatic overtones. It doesn't seem to mind the heat here.

Roxbury Russet - these need to hang on the tree as late as possible. At that point they have a wonderful sweet/sour balance. The curculios seem to have a particular affection for this tree though.

Canada Reinette - sweet/sour like the Roxbury but with more aromatics in the flavor. My tree got hit by fireblight pretty bad this spring though. Also water core was a problem.

Mother - This apple is no good unless picked dead ripe and eaten fairly soon. So you can see why it it not a commercially popular apple. But it is a very good aromatic sweet apple if properly picked. Water core issues again here.

Gala - A very easy to grow apple here. It is similar to Mother in taste but has a much bigger picking and storage window. I like the taste of Mother a bit more, but even for the home grower Gala is probably a better bet.

I had many other apples which fruited this year but have not been as consistently good as these, or I didn't get enough fruits. Michael, from your list neither my White Winter Pearmain nor the Newtown Pippin had much flavor. I think the drought may not have been kind to them though. My trees are in the 4-5 year old range so are just now coming into bearing.

Scott



Michael Nave wrote:
Very interesting. None of those would make my top 6,
or even top 20, which shows two things-there are a lot
of good apples out there, and tastes are different!

My top 15 would be, in no particular order:

White Winter Pearmain
Roxbury Russet
Hudson's Golden Gem
Zabergau Reinette
Newtown Pippin
Knobbed Russet
Fameuse
Peasgood Nonesuch
Golden Russet
Belle De Boskoop
Cox's Orange Pippin
Pitmaston Pineapple
Rubinette
Swiss Gourmet
Ashmead's Kernel

Of course this list can change on a monthly, weekly or
even a daily basis....




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