ApplesForSale!

Second HARVEST UPDATE!
November 9, 2009 –

Goldrush

Above is a group of Goldrush apples hanging on the tree, The apple has a rich, complex spicy flavor, exceptionally sweet and tart. The variety was developed by the Indiana, Illinois, and New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Stations, in a cooperative effort at breeding apples with resistance to various apple diseases that plague growers, such as apple scab, fire blight and mildew. Mildew and apple scab are not problems here in northern Utah, but fire blight is something for which we have to keep constant vigilence. So far, the Goldrush have escaped that particular plague.

A cross of Yellow Delicious with a disease resistent seedling in 1972, the apple was chosen as a variety in the Purdue Horticulture Research Farm for study. It was released in 1993 for advanced testing and finally released to the orchard market after it passed with flying colors.

The name "Goldrush" was chosen for its golden color and slightly bronze blush coupled with its "rush" of sweet-tart flavor when bitten into. This apple is a long keeper, up to seven months, if kept at a temperature between 32 and 34 degrees. This is the temperature at which we keep our own apple cooler, allowing us to offer fresh, crunchy apples for many months during our cold winters. In fact, its natural acidity moderates after two to three months, resulting, as the experiment stations explain, in an exceptional overall quality of sweet and tart.

We can't actually attest to Purdue's fact of acidic moderation, since the market size of these apples have been mostly gone during the past couple of years during the first month. Smaller Goldrush apples, however, we keep back for cider and they add a terrific charge to the flavor of the end product.

At the end of this section of new apples are some recipes using these and other apples here in our orchard that you might be interested in.

Arkansas Black Arkansas Blacks in Baskets

We are finally getting a good crop of this old southern apple, the Arkansas Black, after losing our first trees to the ravages of voles (now well contained by our army of farm cats, bless their hearts). Arkansas Black is an heirloom apple, shown at right in baskets before being washed and polished. Its name arose from the deep maroon color of the skin which turns nearly black after storage of a couple of months. The skin shows up beautifully in salads and in the fruit bowl for eating fresh. Its intense sweet-tart flavor also makes the apple excellent for pies, for an addition to apple sauce to brighten the taste, for an addition to apple cider for the same reason, and for things like drying, cobblers, and apple butter. Dense and firm, not so say hard, fresh off the tree. Needs time to mellow.

Arkansas Black is a variety of Winesap, first produced in the 1840s, and which made up for a time from ten to fifteen percent of Arkansas' production of apples. By the 1930s, however, a series of calamities knocked these usually small Arkansas Black orchardists out of business. Codling moth infestations, especially, increased expenses due to the need for pesticide spraying and the resultant FDA rules on washing before sale. This was followed by several years of drought conditions in the state and, finally, the Great Depression. By the end of the decade, Arkansas was down to producing only from three to five percent of their namesake apple.

The Arkansas Black is still susceptible to codling moth, and we understand from research that they are also susceptible to apple scab. Apple scab has not been a problem here at DragonGoose Farm; but fire blight is a big problem, especially during and after rainy springs like the one we had this year. Alan and his helpers walked the orchard several times a week this past spring and summer, cutting out limbs showing its effects.

A note on pest management

In terms of pest management we follow, for all our apples, the Utah State University Extension Service IPM (Integrrated Pest Management) for control of codling moth, a low spray system using organic dormant oil and two pesticde sprays at the proper time for the first and second hatch of the moth. In our case, we use Imidan pesticide. These spray dates are given out by the Extension office, along with the dates for the organic dormant oil sprays. Both presticde sprays occur long before the ripe apples are picked.

As orchardist Alan Shaw explains it:

The only insect pest of consequence in Cache Valley apples is the codling moth. This moth lays its eggs on apples, the eggs hatch, and the larvae bore into the apple and eat the interior. They then emerge, leaving a noticeable hole. There are usually two hatches. Very occasionally there is a third.

The apple damage is controlled by covering the fruit with pesticide, a contact poison which kills the larva by contact when it hatches. Traditionally, pesticide spray is applied often enough to keep the fruit covered throught the growing season. This requires spraying every two or three weeks, depending on the spray.

A better approach, and the one DragonGoose Farm uses, is to spray only when the eggs are hatching. The time of hatch depends on the location, since it is a function of temperature. USU Extension Service calculates the hatch time for various locations throught the state and publishes the results in a monthly Tree Fruit IPM Advisory.

Using this advisory, it is possible to manage apple damage with only two (possibly three) pesticide spray applications a year. It is also possible to use only one spray application for the first hatch by delaying the hatch onset with an organic dormant oil spray, which is the system we follow. Also, I get by with one pesticide spray for the second hatch because codling moth infestation here in northernmost Utah is mild.

It is very difficult to manage codling moth damage with a completley organic spray program.

Pinpointing the most effective date for pesticide spraying avoids the once-every-two-weeks-spray-no-matter-what system which is easy and foolproof as far as the pest is concerned, but results in a huge amount of poisonous spray on the apples. The heavily sprayed apples then need corrosive cleaners in the washing process which take off the protective wax. The loss of protective wax, in turn, necessitates a final wax additive to give the apples back their smooth, shiny finish. By the time these apples reach the supermarket, they're clean and shiny all right, but they're pretty tired on the inside from the beating they'd experienced on the outside. (Some of them also suffer from being in cold storage for months during their trips from distribution centers all across the nation as well as in Africa, South America, and China.)

Fuji

Below is a box half-full of Fuji apples, fresh from their scrubbing and polishing on the apple line. The Fujis, like the Arkansas Blacks, are a late maturing apple and, until lately, an actual crop from either of them was a worrisome proposition here. Because of climate change, however, our growing zones have moved from three and four to five and six, so we're doing less nail chewing about both the Blacks and Fujis as night temperatur Fuji apples

es drift down into the twenties.

Fuji was developed in the 1940s at the Tohoku Research Station in the Aomori Prefecture, Japan,from two American varieties – Red Delicious and Ralls Janet. The apple became widely available in Japanese markets in 1962 and soon became an unrivaled best seller there. Their popularity spread to China, not only in their markets but in their orchards. Fuji apples make up something like 70% of China's apple production.

I remember reading a couple of decades ago a piece about the Fuji apple, written by an apple fancier who had discovered the variety in a California market. He said it was the best apple he, personally, had ever tasted, and recommended it to everyone. That was in the 1980s, when Fuji apples had just begun appearing in certain of the United States' markets.

Later, when we began planning our own orchard, we were glad to see the trees offered by our then-orchard tree supplier in Indiana, Ed Fackler (now retired). He'd warned in his description that it was a warm climate apple, but we wanted to take a chance on it. Now, the climate has apparently cooperated with us.

The apple is not particularly big, usually about the size of a baseball, though because of our heavy spring rains, our Fujis are bigger this year than normal – around 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter, a good size for a lunch box. They're fairly dense and good keepers; they can stay crisp and juicy for up to five weeks under 32-34 degree refrigeration.

While searching for information on apples I came across a couple of sites with some scrumptious-sounding recipes containing apples. The one I wanted to try today is Apple and Pear Bread Pudding. Recipes and links follow.

Apple and Pear Bread pudding

Ingredients
8 slices cinnamon bread
1 large apple, peeled and sliced thin
1 large pear, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 eggs, slightly beaten
3 cups 2% milk
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 teaspoon salt

Baking containers
8"x11" baking pan or glass dish
Larger pan for hot water bath
Large non-stick* skillet (*or just be dang careful)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Toast bread in a toaster or by placing the bread on a large baking sheet and putting the sheet in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes.
Place prepared fruit and raisins in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and mix. Put the fruit mixture in a large skillet and cook over medium heat until softened, approximately 15 minutes. Stir frequentlly.
Coat baking dish with cooking spray.
Tear toasted bread into pieces (6 to 8 pieces per slice) and place in the bottom of the baking dish.
Pour cooked fruit over bread and spread evenly.
In a bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt, and remaining sugar together. Pour egg mixture over fruit. Allow this to set a room temperature for 5 minutes.
Place the pan in a larger pan of hot water ( a cookie sheet with sides works with me) and bake the pudding 35 to 45 minutes or until the pudding is slightly set. ( I live in a mountain valley at 4500 ft and so took it out of the oven at 35 minutes.)
Remover from water bath and cool completely before serving

Serves approximately 6, depending upon the family's hunger for bread pudding

Apple Crisp

Ingredients

8 sliced apples
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup instant or regular oatmeal
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
Fill a 9x13 cake pan half-full of sliced apples
Sprinkle 1/2 cup white sugar over the top of the apples
Mix the oatmeal, brown sugar, and flour together and spinkle over the top of the apples
Cut the stick of butter into pieces and dot the top of all this
Put in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 40-50 minutes (keep your eye on it for over-browning)
This is great, served hot and topped with ice cream

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For bread pudding, apple crisp, and many other apple recipes:
Apple and Pear Bread pudding
Apple Crisp
Fuji Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

More Apples Coming In

As of October 22, 2009 –

Ashead's Kernel

At left is a wagon of Ashmead's Kernel, one of the most spritely flavored of the heirloom apples. They're not for the weak of heart, palate-wise – a mouth-watering (truly!) balance of high sugar-content-sweet and rolling-the-eyes tart. Ashmead's Kernel originated in England some 300 years ago, and has a long history of excellence in baking for pies, tarts, and rollovers due to its intense apple flavor. It's especially excellent as part of the mix in cider and apple sauce.

As you can see in the photo, the apple is green with a faint pink blush (on those apples which are especially exposed to the sun). All are heavily russeted with a firm texture. These apples are subject to Cedar Apple Rust and, since we are a low-spray orchard, we've had the devil's own time trying to find something to cure it organically. Last year we covered two trees' worth with plastic sandwich bags which took an extraordinary amount of time. Since we tried giving them an organic oil spray at the same time (not having much faith in it), all the apples came through clear, bagged or not. I did notice that we were still picking plastic bags out of the grass this spring that had been blown off the year before. This year we used the organic oil spray exclusively and it seems to have done the trick.

Beautiful apples these are not, one grower described them as having a skin that looks like an Idaho potato, but for cooking they are first rate.

Fortune
Fortune Apples

The Fortune apple (at left) is a cross of the longtime pie apple (from 1800), Northern Spy, and the 1940s introduction, Empire. The Fortune apple was developed by Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., and introduced in 1995. (Cornell also developed Empire.)

What an enormous apple this is! Especially this year when all our apples are bigger than normal. The jumbo apples in the basket shown measure easily four inches across. Our landscape manager is taking a box of them for his faculty at their next meeting as an "apple for the teacher" moment. (His day job is principal of West Side High School, a few miles north of us in Idaho. We are lucky to have him!)

But big isn't all they have going for them. The flavor is sweet and juicy, and has a satisfying crunch when bitten into, creating an explosion of pure apple. The flesh is cream colored and crisp with a slightly spicy flavor. And one thing about big apples – it doesn't take long to fill up a pie pan with them.

We also have six trees of one of Fortune's parents, Northern Spy. They looks exactly like the Fortunes shown above and, to my taste buds, taste exactly the same. The difference between them is that they take something like a decade to start bearing, unlike the more precocious Fortunes, and they're said to have problems such as bitter pit and blossom fireblight (not noticed here yet). They're also prone to bruise easily because of their thin skins. The thin skins, easily damaged during shipping, are the reason for their dying out as a nationwide apple.

Jonathan Jonathan apples

At long last, we have a good supply of Jonathan apples! We have several-half bushels of the heirloom Jonathans, developed prior to 1826 by Phillip Rick, and to say Jonathans are long-time favorites is putting it mildly. Jonathan afficionados will proclaim the original Jonathan as the best tasting apple in the world. Certainly, the taste of Jonathan apples is what most people think of when they think "apple," and many old timers around here have grown up with a Jonathan apple tree outside their back door. The variety here in our south orchard, the Rick's Jonathan, is said to have come from a seedling of the Spitzenberg apple (of which more below).

The ten Jonathans we planted a few years ago in the north orchard came out of frustration from picking little or sometimes none of the heirlooms, though cutting out most of the shade trees to the east of them helped their vigor greatly. The new crop of Jonathans, just recently bearing, are of a disease-resistant variety developed from a collaboration between Purdue University in Indiana and Rutgers University in New Jersey. The variety was introduced in 1979 as 'Jonafree." The difference in color, maturity, and texture is almost indiscernible, though tasters tell me they have a slightly less acidic flavor.

Spitzenberg and Melrose

Here is a cart of Spitzenberg and Melrose apples, just picked and waiting to be washed, polished, and packed. The Spitzenbergs are in Melrose and Spitzenberg baskets

the baskets on top, and are the heirlooms of this batch. The variety appeared in New York State prior to 1800, and for a long time it was valued for its firmness and sprightly flavor. A special claim to fame is that Spitzenberg is said to have been Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple, having been growing in his orchard for some time.

The apple is medium large, with russet dots, skin red over yellow, with flesh that's white with a yellowish tinge. If one looks carefully, a faint stripe can be seen through the skin. It has a lovely, crunchiness and sweet taste. In the early days of our orchard we made a big batch of applesauce with Spitzenberg that pleased us all. It turned out slightly darker than McIntosh applesauce.

Melrose is a Jonathan - Red Delicious cross and a much better keeper than Jonathan itself. It has the rich flavor and thin, tender skin of Jonathan, but is slightly larger. Melrose has a crisp, juicy texture and a sweet flavor and with its smallish size, it makes a good choice for the lunchbox . It was developed at the Agricultural Station at Wooster, Ohio. One thing we have noticed is that these apples can't be left too long on the rotating table after being washed and polished, since its tender skin can be easily bruised.

Liberty!
Basket of Liberty apples

The Liibertys are ready! These trees are the most prolific in either orchard, bearing big crops every year. They're also almost completely immune to disease if treated with organic oil and given one codling moth spray a season (at the proper time for the area in which they're grown). They're a medium sized apple, though as with all our other apples, they've come out surprisingly big this year. The Liberty is a McIntosh-type apple; that is, it has white flesh and makes a lovely light, but tangy-sweet applesauce, much like that of McIntosh. They're excellent for eating, too, crisp and sweet-tart, very juicy. Another good lunch box apple, perhaps for a teenager, and very red.

We have eight full bushels (16 half-bushels) of these apples set aside in the cooler for a family who makes applesauce as a group the first week of December.

Calville Blanc d'Hiver (Sold Out!)

We have a limited quantity of this gourmet culinary apple of France and Germany. Our first planting of two trees in the 1990s had just begun to bear when the voles made short work of their roots the following winter. In the spring we found both trees loose in the soil, the bark gone all the way down past the soil line, both trees dead as door nails. Discouraged but not (completely) bowed, we planted ten more Calvilles the next spring and now, after another decade, they have finally given us enough apples to offer in peck bags.

It's not clear whether the tree itself originated in Germany or France, but we do know the date it first was described – 1598. I had only one chance to send these apples out to our family before we had to fall back and begin again, but my son-in-law told me how delighted he was with them, that they're perfect for desert, sliced and eaten with cheese. Applesource describes them, also, as "superior for all culinary purposes."

As you can see in the photo, they're a rather lumpy apple, of good size, with noticable ribs, green with a red blush. They're said to be very high in vitamin C. The flesh is yellowish white, the flavor sweet, the apple aromatic. Trees of Antiquity describes them as excellent for tarts.

Stellar

Stellar is a midseason variety from Arkansas, a Golden Delicious cross, ten trees of which we'd got in the spring of 2000 from Rocky Stellar Apples

Meadow nursery (owner now retired). There doesn't appear to be much in the literature about Stellar which surprises me because it's such a robust apple. The taste is memorable, being tart and sweet and very intense. Actually, it's one of my favorite apples because of its terrific snap and tang. As you can see in the photo at right, the apple is yellowish green and conical, with an occasional blush on the sunny side.

I have always eaten these fresh, but I've seen a few recipes for pies, cakes, and tarts made from them. We're looking forward to putting some of them in our next batch of cider. Speaking of which –

Cider

Half Gallons Cider

We have our first pressing of cider now in half gallons and gallons. It's a flavorful mix this time of Whitney and Geneva crabapples and sweet William's Pride, Honeycrisp, Sweet Sixteen, Gala, and others, including a few Jonathans. This cider is stored frozen, it has no additives, nor is it pasteurized. We sell it frozen and it must be kept refrigerated.

Directions to DragonGoose Farm, 435-258-2702, 1700 Shaw Lane, Lewiston

Early October, 2009 –
Spottsy in the Ashmead's Kernel Tree

Cat in the tree

Our barn cat, Spottsy, is up among the Ashmead's Kernel apples keeping an eye on operations because apple harvest is a very interesting sight for her. The humans appear happy, too, with some nice surprises – bigger apples due to a long wet spring, some brand new trees just coming into production, some of them with significant production, and bumper crops on all varieties.

Daughter Melanie's Seckel pear tree, after giving us a taste of its fruit last fall, looks like it's produced at least four pecks That's a full bushel. What a surprise – the tree couldn't be more than three years old.

McIntosh (Sold Out!)

As for the old standbys, the McIntosh trees have given us a good crop, too, especially now that we've grown wise to its inclination to drop its fruit before it's fully ripe (we watch it now like hawks!). We don't sell apples that have touched the ground, or use them for cider, either, so in many years we've lost half the McIntosh crop to the Shaw's private cellar of applesauce. Luckily, McIntosh is perfect for applesauce – we've had plenty of experience on that front – because it sauces up so beautifully and stays white and clean while being cut and processed.

We use our old, hand-cranked peeler-slicer to fill up a heaping, good-sized basin, see, then drop the slices into our heavy, enameled iron pot with a little water. After it begins to boil, some judicious stirring produces a lovely, thick, old-fashioned sauce that can be poured right into jars (along with sugar, of course) without going through a seive. McIntosh apples are excellent for eating, too – tart-sweet, juicy, and crisp – but this year we might be able to try another variety for our year's worth of breakfast applesauce.

Honeycrisp ( Sold Out!)

For instance, we have a great crop this year of Honeycrisp. These have really exploded this year after almost a decade of being shaded by cottonwoods and boxelders on the hill bordering the orchard. These have been since thinned to less than a quarter. The Honeycrisp apple trees came from the University of Minnesota. It's a 1991 introduction (left). They have an unbelievable flavor – crisp and juicy, nicely balanced between sweet and acid. One site, specializing in selling gift boxes of apples and other fruit, characterized this apple as "explosively crisp" (the description is actually a registered trademark of theirs!). It's a good description – they do seem to explode with juice and crsipness in your mouth when bitten into.

They're large, too, great for pies, tarts, drying, and baking in general. Perhaps this year, we can try Honeycrisp for our own applesauce. I understand from the literature that people have tried them for sauce, and they love it. A Macoun and Honeygold cross, it gets its sweetness and crispness from Macoun and its tartness and storability from the University of Minnesota's 1970 introduction, Honeygold.

Gala
Early Gala apples on the sorting table

The all-time favorite apple around here is the Gala, and we have four different varieties on offer this year, all with the punchy sweet crunchiness of the original Gala.

At right, on the sorting table, we can see the early Galas that have been washed and polished. They've since been boxed and ready to go. The Imperial Galas – and these are unusually large for Galas – will be ready for picking next week. The Big Reds are being washed and polished right now, and toward the end of the Gala season, in two or three weeks, the original Galas will be ready for picking.

The original Galas are a Golden Delicious and Kidd's Orange Red cross, developed in the 1920s in New Zealand, from which it spread all over the globe, testifying to its popularity, especially for eating fresh – it's essentially a dessert apple and of medium size, good for lunch boxes. It appeared here in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Considering that the Gala is grown globally, it's become available in supermarkets year round, though the flavor and crispness of these apples suffer from both the long cold storage (sometimes as long as six months) and the distance traveled. Well, that was a plug for locally grown apples, but you all know that!

The early Galas shown here on the sorting table vary in redness depending on where they were growing on the tree. The ones ripening on the inside limbs are less red than the ones on the outside which were exposed to plenty of the sun's rays. In other words, the lack of redness doesn't indicate that the apples are less ripe. This is true of all apples, fully red or with a red blush.

Geneva Crabs
Geneva craab apples showing red-streaked flesh

Geneva craab apples showing red-streaked flesh

I've made apple sauce from Galas a couple of years running, but found that I had to add fresh lemon juice to jazz up the very sweet flavor of the Galas, otherwise, I ended up with a rather bland sauce. Then I discovered the trick of mixing the Galas with Geneva Crabs, a medium-sized apple with a lovely tart flavor that also gives apple sauce an interesting pink color.

These crabs give a great jolt to farm cider. Mixed in with less acidic apple varieties, they add quite a bite and color to pies, baked crumbles, or crisps and, of course, they're great for a nicely pink crab apple jelly.
Red Flesh Crabapple on the sorting table

Red Flesh Crabapple on the sorting table

There are other red-fleshed crabs, such as the one our daughter, Melanie, planted a few springs ago, called simply, Red Flesh Crabapple. At right, is a photo of them on the sorting table. We have a limited number of these for sale, perhaps four or five pecks. They measure one to one and a half inches in diameter. Melanie has made juice from them and testified to its wonderful flavor. As soon as I read that they make a beautiful red crabapple jelly, I decided to make some myself this year.

Chestnut Crabapple
Chestnut crabapples spilling out of a peck bag

Chestnut crabapples spilling out of a peck bag

This is the first year that we have Chestnut Crabapples for sale, since we've been blessed with a bumper crop of them. These are a sweet and tart fresh eating crab that our veteranarian pointed out to us last year are great for kids' lunch boxes. They're not too big for smaller children to finish off at one sitting and they're sweet with just enough tart to give that wake-up flavor we expect in apples right off the tree. Melanie also includes the smaller of them in cider, and I'm thinking of mixing some of them in our family's apple sauce.

We have many more apples coming along, besides the later Galas, such as the Sweet Sixteen, Fortune, which are very large this year, and the large, thin-skinned Northern Spy – one of the parents of Fortune. We'll have three different types of yellow apples, including the excellent Stellar, and the quite late Goldrush. We're also looking forward to picking the heirloom apples, William's Pride and Jonathans.

In the meantime, watch for more varieties to come from our orchard. I'll be posting news on what's ripening every few weeks.

Until then,

Joan Katherine Shaw

October 2009

Photos - Melanie Shaw