Apples, apples and more apples

I have a very old, large Cortland Apple tree in my yard. I've never pruned it or sprayed it. Some years I get no apples and some years I get a ton. This year it's the latter. I believe the annual production is based on Spring weather, which could effect whether or not the bees can pollinated the blossoms. In addition, this Summer has been very hot, sunny and dry, so the apples ripened about 3 weeks earlier than usual. Over the past 3 weeks, I made 8 pies, 1 gallon of applesauce and my son made 3 gallons of cider. And the tree is still about half full. For pies, I've been using Betty Crocker crusts. Cortlands make excellent pies, and the flesh remains white when cut or peeled. I add a small amount of sugar and some lemon juice, but I like the taste of the apples, so, no cinnamon. I plan on freezing a few more pies to serve over the holidays.

[Jenise]

Howie! Been so long since we've seen you {{{hug}}}, and it's great to hear you talking about your kitchen again. You must have one helluva freezer.

How are you feeling?

Nice to hear from you, Howie!

The little Red Delicious tree in our front yard doesn't have a whole lot of fruit on it, but they are all rather larger than usual. I have no idea what really controls its behavior.

Thx Jenise! I've been feeling a bit more energetic lately. In addition to all the apples, I got a lot of long overdue yard work done. One of the side effects from the chemo from 4 years ago (Still cancer-free) is a change in taste buds. While I can still analyze and perhaps appreciate a decent wine, I very seldom feel motivated to drink any. However, recently, with some help from my boys, I finally got around to bottling the last of my 2015 Cab Franc and am about to bottle my 2016 Riesling. Living alone in these times has changed my eating and cooking regimen. I haven't been to a restaurant since February, and I need a wing fix.

(Still cancer-free)

...I finally got around to bottling the last of my 2015 Cab Franc and am about to bottle my 2016 Riesling.

How's the CF doing? A long time in carboy.

...I need a wing fix.

I occasionally go to a nearby Popeye's for my fried chicken fix.

I occasionally go to a nearby Popeye's for my friend chicken fix.

Cannibalism?

Going back to the subject of apples, the ornamental flowering apple tree outside my condo aborted its fruit the past two years due to a severe gypsy moth infestation that killed two nearby oak trees and almost killed the apple tree. This year it's recovered, and the apples are considerably larger than in the past. Probably because the tree isn't being shaded by the oaks anymore.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Thx Jenise! I've been feeling a bit more energetic lately. In addition to all the apples, I got a lot of long overdue yard work done. One of the side effects from the chemo from 4 years ago (Still cancer-free) is a change in taste buds. While I can still analyze and perhaps appreciate a decent wine, I very seldom feel motivated to drink any. However, recently, with some help from my boys, I finally got around to bottling the last of my 2015 Cab Franc and am about to bottle my 2016 Riesling. Living alone in these times has changed my eating and cooking regimen. I haven't been to a restaurant since February, and I need a wing fix.

Interesting to know that the chemo seemed to have permanently altered your taste buds. Certainly, just going through something so life-altering all by itself changes your perspectives (and social life). All the boys doing good? How many grandchildren now?

We've only eaten in two restaurants, both outdoors, both in the past month. Goes for most people I know. Wings are great take-out, that's pretty safe. Go get some!

[Jenise]

Thx Jenise! I've been feeling a bit more energetic lately. In addition to all the apples, I got a lot of long overdue yard work done. One of the side effects from the chemo from 4 years ago (Still cancer-free) is a change in taste buds. While I can still analyze and perhaps appreciate a decent wine, I very seldom feel motivated to drink any. However, recently, with some help from my boys, I finally got around to bottling the last of my 2015 Cab Franc and am about to bottle my 2016 Riesling. Living alone in these times has changed my eating and cooking regimen. I haven't been to a restaurant since February, and I need a wing fix.

Interesting to know that the chemo seemed to have permanently altered your taste buds. Certainly, just going through something so life-altering all by itself changes your perspectives (and social life). All the boys doing good? How many grandchildren now?

We've only eaten in two restaurants, both outdoors, both in the past month. Goes for most people I know. Wings are great take-out, that's pretty safe. Go get some!

I occasionally go to a nearby Popeye's for my fried chicken fix.

Cannibalism?

Fixed.

Back to the topic ....apples, apples and more apples. This has been an excellent year here in east central Wisconsin. I have had bumper crops of Cox's Orange Pippin, Tolman Sweet, Spitzenberg and Winesap. All planted for their "heirloom" cachet in a small yard that was designated for nothing other than edible. Also bumper was Shipova pear, Kiefer pear, Mount Royal Plum and a sweet Queen Anne Cherry. Certainly don't expect a similar production next year but one can always hope. I have made and frozen sauce, gallons of cider, pies, crisps but mostly given them away to friends and neighbors and the local police station food bank. I never envisioned all the work the plantings would entail....silly me, but it has been a rewarding distraction for me and an enlightenment for neighbors who only knew these fruits from bags in the grocery store.
In a more grounded way it ties one to the climate, length of day, change of seasons and knowledge of earth's bounty.
Glad to hear your positive updates Howie.

Nice to see you're keeping heirlooms alive. My latest apple discovery (not heirloom) is Cripps Pink (Lady Williams × Golden Delicious) 1973 Australia. I think it's wonderful, so if you find any, give 'em a try.

I ate an apple from my Red Delicious tree today. Not bad: crisp, somewhat juicy, had some flavor. Unappealingly bumpy but so it goes.

At the greenmarket recently I picked up a Crimson Crisp and a bunch of little sweet apples (definitely not crab apples) just labelled "Heirloom":

2020-10-01 19.38.51 sm.jpg (26.37 KiB) Viewed 4236 times

[Jenise]

Jeff, as I imagined your home in Brooklyn, I didn't realize you had yard enough for an apple tree!

It doesn't take much and it pretty much *is* the yard. And it was already full-grown when I moved in.

This picture is "the tax photo" taken in the 1940s. You can see the building lot very clearly (because it's before the 1970s movement that planted all the trees):

Metropolitan Archive tax photo sm.jpg (60.69 KiB) Viewed 4215 times

The plant-able area is about 10' deep and follows the contour of the building (20'x60'):

sketch rot.jpg (26.48 KiB) Viewed 4215 times

This picture is from 2009. The apple tree is the little one, lower right hand corner, that still has its leaves:

Clinton elevation sm.jpg (97.02 KiB) Viewed 4215 times

It's a good bit taller now.

[Jenise]

Poor little tree looks lonely! Must be others nearby, though, for pollination. And your floor is the tall one at the top of the steps, I would presume?

[Jenise]

Back to the topic ....apples, apples and more apples. This has been an excellent year here in east central Wisconsin. I have had bumper crops of Cox's Orange Pippin, Tolman Sweet, Spitzenberg and Winesap. All planted for their "heirloom" cachet in a small yard that was designated for nothing other than edible. Also bumper was Shipova pear, Kiefer pear, Mount Royal Plum and a sweet Queen Anne Cherry.

So envious! I adore apples, and hate that most of the favorites from my childhood are no longer available in supermarkets. Green Pippins and Winesaps, just for instance. Out here, everything seems to be 42 variations of Honeycrisp these days. I was hoping to take a trip down to the Hood River to stock up on non-supermarket varieties this fall thinking what else do I have to do. But might not have the chance, as I will be the daily driver for someone going thru radiation which will start ASAP but I don't know exactly which day next week or the week after that will be.

Poor little tree looks lonely! Must be others nearby, though, for pollination. And your floor is the tall one at the top of the steps, I would presume?

Yes, our floor is the tall one at the top of the stoop.

The tree is a bit lonely but not so much as you might think. There is an apricot tree just up the street, and both gingko and flowering pear are very common.

As to pollination, there's a short story: When we first moved in, the tree produced teeny hard little proto-fruits that simple fell off at the end of June. I have since learned from an apple-growing friend that this is due to lack of pollination and is actually called the June drop. Apple trees are gendered so it needs a partner.

Then suddenly, about 7-8 years ago, the tree started giving proper apples. Given my urban setting, my friend suggested that somebody nearby had installed a decorative crabapple that came into its maturity. Apple trees are fairly promiscuous and not too fussy about exactly which species of 'apple' pollen they get...

I was compelled to look for the "old timers" when the orchard we usually went to for picking - Winter Banana, Tolman Sweet,
Pippin, Wolf River, Baldwin, Cameo, Duchess of Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Golden Russet and others was sold to a family from Washington state that immediately ripped out ALL the unusual trees that had been there for many decades. ....and planted Red Delicious . You are not surprised to learn that they went bankrupt within 5 years. The orchard had been unique in this part of the state and did a brisk business in apples pick your own, cider as well as sour cherries. I was heartbroken so decided to try my hand. Not sure but Golden Delicious, planted two years ago as a good pollinator may be the reason we have a bumper crop this year. So far, have 5 gallons of different "single variety" ciders in the freezer. Also freezing bags of sauce.
The bumper crop has been an impetus to look for alternate uses of apples, cider and sauce as well as to revisit the unique aromas, textures and tastes of these apples.
Sad to say however, fireblight is rampant, I think from an infected Medlar. I will have to peruse the catalogs for plums, persimmons , cherries, peaches that are hearty in Zone 4 as the apples become infected.

I was compelled to look for the "old timers" when the orchard we usually went to for picking - Winter Banana, Tolman Sweet,
Pippin, Wolf River, Baldwin, Cameo, Duchess of Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Golden Russet and others was sold to a family from Washington state that immediately ripped out ALL the unusual trees that had been there for many decades. ....and planted Red Delicious

Ugh, what a terrible story. (And, frankly, what stupid people: how did they imagine they were going to succeed by growing just what everybody else does?)

Will never figure out those kind of idiots. At least, Karma still works.

I ate an apple from my Red Delicious tree today. Not bad: crisp, somewhat juicy, had some flavor. Unappealingly bumpy but so it goes.

Eaten a few more of these, and they've been better than the first. So, a small but good crop this year.

I've saved a few seeds from the Cripps Pink apple that I raved about before, and I think I'll plant one next year.

Have tried Pink Lady from the grocery but it is a zone 6+ cultivar. Should do very well in your area Larry. I do have a spot, south facing against a brick wall that is a sort of micro climate for growing less cold hardy fruit but since losing apples to fire blight I'm looking at stone fruits for the future. Good luck. Always exciting to grow from seed.

Thanks. I'm presently growing a Chinese silk tree from seed to replace a silver maple tree I had to cut down. If you want any seeds, let me know.