Do you still watch TV with rabbit ears grabbing your signal, and then grab those winesaps from the icebox?
I’m clearly joking with you, but the Winesap is such an old variety that it made me chuckle. My folks were commercial apple growers and I haven’t seen a Winesap in a long time.
Cosmic Crisp is my current (relatively widely available) variety as well. They’re really hard to find, but I fondly remember Criterion apples. When picked, they were unbeatable, but their shelf life was horrible. From amazing to mush in a matter of days.
https://www.scottfarmvermont.com/reine-des-reinettes
I definitely ordered them from Baldor in October 2021 but obviously it is now late harvest only:
Also, can’t recall if actually got them or not (as Baldor goes). Generally though if I had my choice I’d go for the Ananas Reinette.
We are big fans of the Cosmic Crisp. Cross between Honeycrisp and Enterpirise-both great apples in their own right .
Just had my first Aurora Golden Gala-another great (juicy and crispy) apple .
Annual apple picking trip in late October once again. Love the King David apple this year !!
Recently had some EverCrisp apples that a local deli brought down from Vermont. It’s like HoneyCrisp on steroids. Big, sweet, crunchy, delicious. Going back to get more.
Just noticed this thread.
From one of my favorite NY growers, Gorzynski Ornery Farm.
Like the Italian cookies, they are “brutti ma buoni”
Picked some of those too. enjoy !
You’re going to have to help me out here, Daniel. I have no idea what I’m looking at. The middle looks like cider, but it could be anything apple-related. I have zero clue about picture # 3.
They’re apple juice and the last picture is a Japanese sweet commonly found in Japan (that one had apple filling from Aomori and caramel inside).
All very delicious.
Great article, Mike, thanks for posting.
As a child of a commercial apple grower (albeit a relatively small family farm), this is particularly interesting. Before going into that, however, from a strictly consumer standpoint, this experience of deteriorating quality in Honeycrisp is absolutely real. Unfortunately, I also seem to see it creeping into my current favorite: Cosmic Crisp. But that’s another story.
I like that the article talks about the challenges in growing Honeycrisp in WA State. They’re awful to grow commercially, and we too pulled out dozens of acres. Bitter pit was particularly bad and, while the apples were still edible, the fickle consumer wouldn’t buy them because they were ugly. It was brutal for many growers in the area.
I really take issue with the author for writing, “…Despite the challenges, growers in Washington—enticed by the profits the Honeycrisp could potentially bring and ignoring their initial bad experiences with it—eventually ended up planting acres and acres of Honeycrisp trees.” Similarly to grapes, growers can’t snap their fingers when there’s an interesting new variety (or rootstock, etc.) and always make an accurate decision of a variety’s viability. You have to remove old trees and prepare a fallow field, add new irrigation, find and source saplings, plant them, and THEN wait for 2-3 years before there is a crop. The article makes it sound like growers in Washington were like, “Yeah, these apples clearly suck, but let’s keep going anyway!” Nobody knew about the challenges until years down the road.
Unfortunately, this is going to continue with other varieties too. It’s like a grape grower planting Pinot Noir in Napa Valley…sure, it’s easy to say with hindsight that it was the wrong grape in the wrong region, but those early farmers weren’t chasing the money necessarily.
Anyway, I’m actually not sure where I was going with all of this other than to hope that readers go beyond the article crapping on Washington growers and realize that some apples are better for some regions than others…just like wine grapes (and so many other ag products). It makes the researchers at U of M seem like saints in that all they supposedly wanted to do was, “…[create] a truly delicious apple with excellent eating quality. The Honeycrisp is a victim of its own success, and has become exactly what Bedford and Luby despised about the variety’s predecessors: a boring commodity apple.” BS. Any research program homes to create a variety with large-scale commercial success.
I basically stopped buying Honeycrisp. Only very rarely and only if predominately red. Way too many times they are green/yellow.
me, too. Occasionally Envy but usually Cosmic Crisp.
Honeycrisp’s have been seeming a bit inconsistent around here- which is weird as it should be new crop season- but flavor and texture have not been what they used to be. Cosmic crisp have been Ok, but I find the texture slightly on the mealy side and the skin is weirdly tough/chewy.
So been trying some of the new gimmicky apples out there.
Most recently “lucy glo”. Mixed results- I don’t care one way or another about the red flesh- I can see some liking it for presentation purposes- salads and whatnot, but the flavor is just OK and again the texture borders mealy too much for me.
I guess it’s all well and good. May be time for honeycrisp to go back to a Midwest regional apple with a seasonal availability. Price declines will change growing habits in WA
