Apples, apples and more apples

When we bought our house in 1980 there was a large apple tree in the back yard. An old (long deceased) neighbor said he thought it was a Northern Spy, an old variety rarely grown commercially, as they do not fruit consistently from year to year. When the boys were small they would climb it often. It is much much bigger now, as I have never pruned it or sprayed it. In most years, I've let the few apples that ripened fall to the ground, where deer and ground hogs feed on the ones I don't run over with the lawn mower. However, this year has been incredible. A few days ago I picked up enough to fill a 6-gallon pail off the ground. From that, I have about a dozen perfect eating apples (they are very sweet and not too tart), made a batch of apple sauce and froze 4 pies. Some of the apples fall over the fence into the neighbors' yard and they have half a bushel. And I have only picked up apples in a small area on the ground, let alone a huge number still on the tree that I will need a ladder to access. Yesterday I bought a juicer (on sale at Aldi's for $30) and made about a half-gallon of apple juice from about 20 apples. Later today I'm going to get as many as I can and make cider, which I've never done.

Good for you, Howie! I had a similar experience with the red delicious tree in my front yard. I contacted an apple guy and he suggested: My best guess is that somewhere within a few hundred yards, you got yourself a new pollinator. Apples are not self fertile, and if there isn't someone nearby with a tree of a different variety, they'll all fall off after the June drop every year. Sounds to me like an unidentified neighbor put in a tree a few years back, and it made it into flowering this year. Even flowering crab apples will work.

[Robin Garr]

Sounds yummy, Howie! As I said over on Teh Facebook, we had a Northern Spy tree in our back yard during our short sojourn in the Catskills back in the '90s, and got buckets full of windfalls every autumn. I'm not a big fan of apples, but these were delicious, especially for cooking. We ate a lot of homemade applesauce and Himmel und Erde that winter!

[Jenise]

Howie, I'm doing cider as a topic for my monthly neighborhood wine tasting this coming Friday. In pursuit of good cider, Bob and I went off to visit some cideries this past weekend. Boy was I impressed. I tasted apple wine, apple eiswein, and ciders made from not just apples but rhubarb, quince, pear and sweetened with honey. I also tasted a cider that had been blended with a little blackberry which is a weed around here and aged in fairly neutral rum barrels, and a dessert cider sweetened with honey and then aged in used whiskey barrels where the whiskey flavor really comes through, and oh my is it GOOD. The quince cider was also unbelievable. I was just completely blown away by what can be done with not just apples but cider in general. You can do some amazingly creative things.

This IS apple country. We have a bumper Cortland crop--great eating, cooking, and cider apples, and we are doing all three to them.

Funny thing, I've eaten one apple a day for about three weeks and haven't had to see a doctor ...

...My best guess is that somewhere within a few hundred yards, you got yourself a new pollinator. Apples are not self fertile, and if there isn't someone nearby with a tree of a different variety, they'll all fall off after the June drop every year....

There are a couple of apple trees on the other side of the road. The winds must have been favorable for the bees while they were in bloom this year.

...My best guess is that somewhere within a few hundred yards, you got yourself a new pollinator. Apples are not self fertile, and if there isn't someone nearby with a tree of a different variety, they'll all fall off after the June drop every year....

There are a couple of apple trees on the other side of the road. The winds must have been favorable for the bees while they were in bloom this year.

I love the Apple Guy's comment that even a crab apple tree will work. I guess apple trees aren't too fussy about who they f... pollinate.

I love the Apple Guy's comment that even a crab apple tree will work. I guess apple trees aren't too fussy about who they f... pollinate.

Same thing with cherry trees, and probably most fruit trees.

Did you know crabapples are the only apple indigenous to the Northeast?

For an update, I think I'm done with apples for now. I made 12 pies (ate 2, gave away 2 and 8 in the freezer), have 5 gallons of hard cider fermenting in the basement, a good size batch of applesauce and 3 containers of apple butter.

Weren't you supposed to carve apples to look like friends, neighbors and family - then dry them up to make, um, er, cute (yes, "cute", I'll go with "cute") little dolls that look like brown, shriveled, dessicated versions of your (former) friends, neighbors and family?

Weren't you supposed to carve apples to look like friends, neighbors and family - then dry them up to make, um, er, cute (yes, "cute", I'll go with "cute") little dolls that look like brown, shriveled, dessicated versions of your (former) friends, neighbors and family?

That sounds like fun, especially if you have friends and/or family that are brown, shriveled, and dessicated ...

Weren't you supposed to carve apples to look like friends, neighbors and family - then dry them up to make, um, er, cute (yes, "cute", I'll go with "cute") little dolls that look like brown, shriveled, dessicated versions of your (former) friends, neighbors and family?

That sounds like fun, especially if you have friends and/or family that are brown, shriveled, and dessicated ...

Covers most of my Mom's side of the family....

[Jenise]

For an update, I think I'm done with apples for now. I made 12 pies (ate 2, gave away 2 and 8 in the freezer), have 5 gallons of hard cider fermenting in the basement, a good size batch of applesauce and 3 containers of apple butter.

Way to go, Howie. Apple butter...wow, haven't had apple butter since I was a child. Loved it then, but I don't run into it these days. Now I want some.

For an update, I think I'm done with apples for now. I made 12 pies (ate 2, gave away 2 and 8 in the freezer), have 5 gallons of hard cider fermenting in the basement, a good size batch of applesauce and 3 containers of apple butter.

Way to go, Howie. Apple butter...wow, haven't had apple butter since I was a child. Loved it then, but I don't run into it these days. Now I want some.

It was pretty simple to make. I slightly modified a recipe I found online. 3 quarts of applesauce, 3 cups of sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground cloves. I cooked it for 24 hours in my crock pot, with the lid askew, first 3 hours on high and the rest of the time on low.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/21205/all-day-apple-butter/

Howie, that is a great story, but I have my doubts that it is a Northern Spy tree. When my wife's parents were alive we visited Vermont several times a year. We love Northern Spy apples and there is an elaborate "farm stand" right near where we would drive to get on Route 91 for the trip back south. We would stop there to buy apples, but there were never Northern Spies until at least Thanksgiving. The story was that they were best after a hard frost. Eating them -- they are so hard that I always thought about cutting diamonds, when you bit a chunk would come off with one side flat, they didn't come off in mouth/teeth shaped bites. And they were pretty tart as well. I looked up the store, Allen Brothers, more or less in sight of Route 91 exit 5.

http://allenbrothersfarms.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Spy

For what it's worth, I don't remember ever seeing them in New Jersey -- but of course they would be a possibility where you live.

You may be right, Frank. I am just going by what I was told by an old neighbor. Thanks for the link. These apples are almost all red and ripened nicely within the past few weeks. We just had our first hard freeze about 4 days ago. I have a friend who is a retired apple expert with the Niagara County Cornell Cooperative Extension. I'll enlist his help and see what he has to say..

UPDATE - I talked with a local apple grower and owner of a cider mill who said my apples are more than likely Cortlands, which are actually my favorite apple. They were introduced in 1915 from the NYS Ag. station in Geneva, NY. I thought they were much more recent, leading me to think my tree couldn't be a Cortland.

Congratulations on the in-place upgrade!

UPDATE - I talked with a local apple grower and owner of a cider mill who said my apples are more than likely Cortlands, which are actually my favorite apple. They were introduced in 1915 from the NYS Ag. station in Geneva, NY. I thought they were much more recent, leading me to think my tree couldn't be a Cortland.

That's what I grow. Lovely apples, and their lifespan after picking is incredibly lengthy.

We make apple cider vinegar from the skins that we peel when we cook apples.

Congratulations on the in-place upgrade!

Jeff -- I like Cortlands and I can buy them in NJ. But if I could buy Northern Spies I would buy those instead.

Of course that may be largely because of our history and our family. I miss them, and I miss Louise's parents, and I miss Vermont…