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Apples!


ILSnwdog
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Tis the season for apples. There are so many different varieties. Do you have a favorite?

 

I just finished a Honey Crisp direct from the orchard. Honey Crisp are amazing. So juicy, you need a napkin. So crisp, they crunch when you bite into them. And they are so sweet! :drool: And apples from the orchard taste so much better than apples from the store. Obviously, apples from the store are not as fresh, and I think they flash freeze them to preserve them. I think that effects the flavor.

 

I also like Granny Smith. So tart and delicious! :)

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I love Honeycrisp also! They are great. There is also another one around here, Nittany, which is similar and tastes really good. My dad loved an old type from New York, Northern Spy; so if a place has those I buy him a bagful. I like to go to the farm stand and get a bunch of different kinds and make pies. They seem to taste better if there is more than one variety in them, don't know why?
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I was out driving around earlier and got hungry. This thread popped into my mind so I decided to stop and get an apple. Since there were no organic produce stores around I had to stop at the supermarket, where I bought a Gala apple. It looked beautiful and was very juicy, but had almost no apple taste. I learned my lesson -- only purchase stuff (and preferably heirloom varieties) from organic produce stores or farmers' markets.
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Best variety of apple I've ever had is called a Sun Crisp. So good, perfect texture, taste (tart/sweet with a little spice), and a pretty yellow with a blush of red. I only discovered them when my family and I went apple picking at an orchard outside of St. Louis. They're available for a limited time, and as far as I can tell, only around there. Much to my disappointment, now that I live out west. It made excellent pie, apple sauce and tasted wonderful with pork. So if you mid-westerners want to try an excellent apple for eating out of hand or cooking with look for those.

 

Mmmm...apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple cake, cider donuts. *Sigh* I love fall. :)

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Best variety of apple I've ever had is called a Sun Crisp. So good, perfect texture, taste (tart/sweet with a little spice), and a pretty yellow with a blush of red. I only discovered them when my family and I went apple picking at an orchard outside of St. Louis. They're available for a limited time, and as far as I can tell, only around there. Much to my disappointment, now that I live out west. It made excellent pie, apple sauce and tasted wonderful with pork. So if you mid-westerners want to try an excellent apple for eating out of hand or cooking with look for those.

 

Mmmm...apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple cake, cider donuts. *Sigh* I love fall. :)

 

Ooh, if you're out West then keep an eye out for Gravensteins, found mostly in Sonoma County.

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Best variety of apple I've ever had is called a Sun Crisp. So good, perfect texture, taste (tart/sweet with a little spice), and a pretty yellow with a blush of red. I only discovered them when my family and I went apple picking at an orchard outside of St. Louis. They're available for a limited time, and as far as I can tell, only around there. Much to my disappointment, now that I live out west. It made excellent pie, apple sauce and tasted wonderful with pork. So if you mid-westerners want to try an excellent apple for eating out of hand or cooking with look for those.

 

Mmmm...apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple cake, cider donuts. *Sigh* I love fall. :)

 

Ooh, if you're out West then keep an eye out for Gravensteins, found mostly in Sonoma County.

Good to know! :)

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Apples are not the way they used to be. It is hit and miss with them. Some taste good; most do not.

That's in large part due to the cold storage process that allows them to be kept for as long as a year. Even when the new crop is coming to sale, year-old apples are being dumped on the market. Just try to find a good Red Delicious these days. Also, places like Costco leave them out on the floor, un-refridgerated. That makes them mealy.

 

Pretty much all apples straight off the tree are killer. :drool:

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Yeah I agree. Apples years ago had more flavor. Even straight from the orchard apples now taste bland.

Bred for appearance and size, rather than flavor. That killed the Red Delicious.
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I grew up outside of Seattle. My grandparents had a huge old apple tree in their yard. A variety called Kings. Huge, bright red, very crisp and tangy. Delicious apples. Unfortunately the tree was prone to worms. So yields varied towards the smaller the older I got. Still, I remember the taste and smell of those apples like it was yesterday. So good.

 

And when I was pregnant with my first born, I craved apples...but not just any apples. Specifically the green apples from this tiny tree in my grandparent's garden, I never did learn what they were called.. They were small, not very many on the tree, not even fully ripe yet, but oh man did they hit the spot. Luckily I only lived a few blocks from their place. And I was welcome to raid the tree as much as I needed. :P

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Best variety of apple I've ever had is called a Sun Crisp. So good, perfect texture, taste (tart/sweet with a little spice), and a pretty yellow with a blush of red. I only discovered them when my family and I went apple picking at an orchard outside of St. Louis. They're available for a limited time, and as far as I can tell, only around there. Much to my disappointment, now that I live out west. It made excellent pie, apple sauce and tasted wonderful with pork. So if you mid-westerners want to try an excellent apple for eating out of hand or cooking with look for those.

 

Mmmm...apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple cake, cider donuts. *Sigh* I love fall. :)

 

Ooh, if you're out West then keep an eye out for Gravensteins, found mostly in Sonoma County.

Good to know! :)

 

I love cider donuts, yum, yum! My friend and I like to make excuses to go to the farm market to get them, soooo good. :)

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At my house in Detroit we had a Macintosh tree that for the most part gave us wormy apples. The worms were actually Codling Moth Larvae. My dad found out that there was an insecticide spray for the larvae which you applied once a week from first bud until 10 days before harvest, followed by a clear water rinse before harvest. So, one year he did the whole regimen. Between that and the weather, the tree exploded with big, heavy, worm free, fantastic apples. What we didn't eat raw or bake into pies we gave to the neighbors.

 

Nowadays my go to apple is the Granny Smith, and I try to have one every day when there available and good. If they get the least bit overripe they get grainy and mushy.

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At my house in Detroit we had a Macintosh tree that for the most part gave us wormy apples. The worms were actually Codling Moth Larvae. My dad found out that there was an insecticide spray for the larvae which you applied once a week from first bud until 10 days before harvest, followed by a clear water rinse before harvest. So, one year he did the whole regimen. Between that and the weather, the tree exploded with big, heavy, worm free, fantastic apples. What we didn't eat raw or bake into pies we gave to the neighbors.

 

 

Yeah, the worms in my grandparent's tree were a variety of apple maggot/moth...I wish they'd sprayed or treated the tree for them. I don't know if it even occurred to them to do so. *Shrug* too late now...the tree is gone, heck the property and grandparents are gone as well. Only the memories remain. Those were some good apples. I've haven't seen that variety since. Kings...anyone else ever hear of them?

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I grew up outside of Seattle. My grandparents had a huge old apple tree in their yard. A variety called Kings. Huge, bright red, very crisp and tangy. Delicious apples. Unfortunately the tree was prone to worms. So yields varied towards the smaller the older I got. Still, I remember the taste and smell of those apples like it was yesterday. So good.

 

And when I was pregnant with my first born, I craved apples...but not just any apples. Specifically the green apples from this tiny tree in my grandparent's garden, I never did learn what they were called.. They were small, not very many on the tree, not even fully ripe yet, but oh man did they hit the spot. Luckily I only lived a few blocks from their place. And I was welcome to raid the tree as much as I needed. :P

 

Sounds like granny Smith apples. My neighbor across the street when I was a kid had a couple of apple trees and they were tart and tangy. Their trees were also prone to worms.

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I'm eating one right now and it's awful. It's a Ranier Honey Crisp. I'm going to have to put some Jiff on it to doctor it up.

 

Honeycrisp apples used to be one of my favorite apples ever but they taste so bland when you buy them at the grocery now.

Edited by EagleMoon
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I'm eating one right now and it's awful. It's a Ranier Honey Crisp. I'm going to have to put some Jiff on it to doctor it up.

 

Honeycrisp apples used to be one of my favorite apples ever but they taste so bland when you buy am at the grocery now.

 

I buy them when they put them in the discount bin - depending on the size of the apples, you get anywhere from two to four for $1.00. Otherwise, the size of the apple I just ate (since they are almost $2 a pound) would have been well over a dollar.

 

Sometimes I get fortunate and get good ones. Most time not. Decades ago Golden Delicious used to be my favorite apple because they were delicious. :) No more.

 

Also used to love Macintosh, but they don't have them out here.

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I grew up outside of Seattle. My grandparents had a huge old apple tree in their yard. A variety called Kings. Huge, bright red, very crisp and tangy. Delicious apples. Unfortunately the tree was prone to worms. So yields varied towards the smaller the older I got. Still, I remember the taste and smell of those apples like it was yesterday. So good.

 

And when I was pregnant with my first born, I craved apples...but not just any apples. Specifically the green apples from this tiny tree in my grandparent's garden, I never did learn what they were called.. They were small, not very many on the tree, not even fully ripe yet, but oh man did they hit the spot. Luckily I only lived a few blocks from their place. And I was welcome to raid the tree as much as I needed. :P

 

Sounds like granny Smith apples. My neighbor across the street when I was a kid had a couple of apple trees and they were tart and tangy. Their trees were also prone to worms.

No they weren't granny smiths, I don't think...maybe a cross though. They had a transparent tree nearby (Transparents being another old variety of apple, yellow with very delicate juicy flesh) and the tree I raided from seemed to be a cross (in flavor) of that plus something else that may have been granny smith. But like I said, I wanted them before they were entirely ripe.

 

I really miss those old varieties.

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