NC Apple Man w/1200 Antique Varieties

Started by Dougfish, June 08, 2021, 16:16:43 PM

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Dougfish

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Woolly Bugger

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Onslow

I dabbled into the heirloom apple scene back in the early 2000s.  Many of these old varieties are not that great, some are notably terrible.

Calville Blanc d'hiver is pretty god awful.

The Granny McMillian is also horrible.

Virginia beauty is highly overrated.

Many are also disease prone. I love the William's Favorite, but this thing is a disease magnet.  Beautiful apples that taste great but..., and the Golden delicious is better than its parent, the Grimes Golden.  Carolina Red June is an ugly little apple, but damn it tastes good.

I'm a big fan of the Royal Limbertwig. There is no other like it.  Cox Orange Pippin isn't bad either.  It is still hard to beat an Old Fashioned Winesap & Golden Delicious.

Regarding varieties with special qualities, the Blue Ridge King was unique.  During the heatwave/drought of 2007, this apple kicked ass. There were 9 consecutive 100+ days, one of which was 106 in the shade, six weeks with no rain, but yet through it all, this tree made a full crop while other trees languished. Maurice Marshall sold me the BRK, but I don't think anyone else is growing them.  I need to cut some scion wood, and graft a couple of these. I hate Maurice is gone.  He took his own life after his wife died of lung cancer. :(

Dougfish

Quote from: Onslow on June 08, 2021, 17:37:57 PMI dabbled into the heirloom apple scene back in the early 2000s.  Many of these old varieties are not that great, some are notably terrible.


Read the article. It was all about the cider.
Johnny Appleseed, whoever the legend or myth he was, sold unnamed whips for cider.
Cider only. Poor man's alcohol. Selecting for eating apples happened much later. 
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Onslow

Quote from: Dougfish on June 08, 2021, 19:48:08 PM
Quote from: Onslow on June 08, 2021, 17:37:57 PMI dabbled into the heirloom apple scene back in the early 2000s.  Many of these old varieties are not that great, some are notably terrible.


Read the article. It was all about the cider.
Johnny Appleseed, whoever the legend or myth he was, sold unnamed whips for cider.
Cider only. Poor man's alcohol. Selecting for eating apples happened much later. 

I've read Lee Calhoun and others.
Quote from: Dougfish on June 08, 2021, 19:48:08 PM
Quote from: Onslow on June 08, 2021, 17:37:57 PMI dabbled into the heirloom apple scene back in the early 2000s.  Many of these old varieties are not that great, some are notably terrible.


Read the article. It was all about the cider.
Johnny Appleseed, whoever the legend or myth he was, sold unnamed whips for cider.
Cider only. Poor man's alcohol. Selecting for eating apples happened much later. 

Doug I've read a few 300 + page books on apples, lol.

The Calville Blanc is the perfect single function cider apple.  Don't think a pig would eat one.

Dougfish

You're not the only well read one on here, Ken.
We'll agree to disagree.

I enjoyed the article.
"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here?
 Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? "
Kelly's Heroes,1970

"I don't wanna go to hell,
But if I do,
It'll be 'cause of you..."
Strange Desire, The Black Keys, 2006

Onslow

Doug, I can't really identify a solid disagreement. I would however advise any person interested in growing heirloom apples to test the product before purchasing the tree. I would venture to guess 80 percent of the old varieties aren't worth having. Many have danced on the ashes of a Granny Smith apple tree. It is an utterly worthless cultivar.

Secondly, fads come and go. Apple tree growing was hot after Lee Calhoun's book was published, but none of the publicity changes the certain facts about apple trees.  They are not native to this land, and they are disease prone.  Yes, many of the old varieties are VERY disease prone.

History is fun to read about, but reliving it, not so much.

Woolly Bugger

#7
Tom Brown's (NC Apple Man) web site

https://applesearch.org/Junaluska_Apple_Discovery.html

ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

Had the opportunity to visit Hopewell Furnace in PA for several years (sampling French Creek which flows through the National Park land).

Their heirloom orchard was impressive.

https://www.nps.gov/hofu/learn/historyculture/apple-orchard.htm
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

greg


Onslow



It is apple season again.  There are many shitty apples currently on the market.  Cameos taste like soap, Granny Smiths taste like insipid rocks.

Many of the best apple varieties grown in the south have these two parents, Winesap, and Golden Delicious. Many people do not understand the Golden Delicious is not related at all to the Red or Yellow.

My list of apples worth eating

1.  Golden Delicious, locally grown.  Great for eating, cooking, sauce, pretty much everything except for apple butter.  The GD has been bred to create a multitude of more modern varieties.

2.  Royal Limbertwig.  This one has a very unique mellow citrus (orange sweet) flavor that will stimulate saliva glands.  Top rated for eating out of hand.

3.  Winesap.  The old fashioned Winesap has its DNA in the Mammoth Black Twig, Arkansas Black, Kinnaird's Choice, Stayman Winesap. This apple is in class of its own.  There is only one Winesap, and they will never fade.  Best damn pie apple ever.

4.  Summer Banana is a smallish southern apple that has a dense nutty flavor/paw paw flavor with a hint of nuttiness.  Makes beautiful sauce, and makes the best cooked apples.

5.  Black Twig.  This one is one of the best all purpose apples for both cider, cooking, fried apples, dumplings. It is a little puckery eating out of hand, but it is a large apple great for the freezer. Very high in Tannic acid.


I just processed two bushels of Golden Delicious apples, and have about 3 bushels hanging on my Arkansas Black tree.

Onslow

Quote from: greg on June 09, 2021, 17:05:35 PMWinesap for me.

Winesaps are a great apple. It does not receive the attention others do because of the lack of mention by Thomas Jefferson. However this apple has been around since colonial times. The only downside is they're triploid.  They don't cook quite as well as some denser varieties due to large juice cells, but the the pies are off the charts.  Damn good eating out of hand apple.

Winesaps are best picked in mid-late October, then places somewhere cool to mellow for a few weeks.  The fragrance peaks around the first week of Nov.  Been doing a lot of peeling and sniffing lately...buckets of them.

Onslow

A good heirloom.....

Stark Bros sold this one in the late 1800s, but was overshadowed and replaced by the Delicious apple, aka, Red delicious.   The Kind David is making a strong comeback.  The King David is wildly popular in California, and now is being grown all over the world, including Rwanda.  Some say it is an Ark Black/Jonathon Cross, while others claim it is a Winesap/Ark Black/Jonathon cross. It will grow in places where there is zero chilling hours. Most think this apple tastes better than an Ark Black.

A review of the King David by the snarkiest apple reviewer.


QuoteA tart heirloom discovered by the legendary Stark Brothers in the Ozarks in 1893, this tomato-shaped, mahogany-skinned, assemblage of complex flavors will grab your attention just long enough for you to realize the King is dead. In fact, even the Stark Brothers carelessly discarded the King David Apple once its tenuous grasp on the throne was usurped by the upstart Red Delicious (which won their company's apple contest the very next year and was quickly trademarked). While King David still rules over a smattering of tiny fiefdoms across America, its empire is a pitiful echo of a reign that never was. If tartness is the rule of the day, look to the Kanzi for a more steadfast leader.

BONUS POINTS: +1 Sour, +1 Baking


Now compare to the Newtown Pippin review....


QuoteThis sand-filled condom from Long Island was choked down in the 1750s by the likes of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, George Washington at Mount Vernon, and Benjamin Franklin as he declared it his favorite apple. Perhaps the Newtown Pippin was once a great apple whose quality has degraded over the centuries like the crumbling democracy the Founding Fathers established. Or perhaps, after decades of eating pigeon pie and squirrel meat, these wooden-toothed slave owners' tastebuds are not to be trusted. Either way, in today's world, aside from being excellent for apple cider production, the Newtown Pippin is a tasteless hunk of malformed donkey shit that should've been abolished during the reign of King George III.

https://applerankings.com/newtown-pippin-apple-review/

trout-r-us

For munching or stewing I prefer Fuji.

For sweet cider I trust the folks at Zieglers to know what's best.
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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
― Heraclitus