Last summer we moved to an old horse farm with a mature apple tree in the yard. I’ve almost always had apple trees next to my houses, but they’ve never produced apples I wanted to eat.
This year, this particular tree has. I just picked a huge, flawless apple off it, and ate the whole thing. It had snap, but a slightly floury texture that made me think they’re baking apples. They’re green with half a red flush right now. The flavor was slightly tart and slightly sweet. Nothing to knock your socks off, but if I’d bought them in a grocery store I’d be perfectly satisfied, and they were better than any apple I’ve ever been given in an institutional setting.
So now I want to pick them. Before the worms can get at them. My husband says they aren’t ready–leave them a week, better two. I say they’re good now and leaving them on the tree makes it likelier worms will get them. He, optimistically, expects them to improve.
Don’t pick them! Give them through the weekend at least, then slowly harvest as needed. You might lose a few to worms, but the improvement in flavor will be worth it. Then either process them of wrap in brown paper and barrel them.
Also - worms aren’t something that happen overnight. The worms will already be in there, or not. If any of them have a conspicuous ribbon-shaped corky scar on the skin, or odd bulges at the stalk or blossom end, that may be an indication of infestation by apple maggot or codling moth.
Cut 'em with a knife. Don’t just munch on them. Also. Grenades.
Here’s a recipe I’ve been using. It’s from the New England Yankee Cookbook, published in 1933.
Take a half-gallon of sweet cider and reduce it by half in a soup pot. Fill the pot with peeled, sliced apples, turn heat down to low, cook as long as you can stand it, stirring frequently.
Every single person who has tasted this says it’s the best applesauce they’ve ever tasted.
Also, my experience is that if your apple is mushy straight off the tree, that’s not going to magically change. Will probably get mushier. Pick em now.
I just picked an egg-basket full. How many is that? Half a bushel, maybe? I picked them, then I had regrets. By volume, that’s more applesauce than my family is used to eating in a year.
Didn’t stop me from putting them through the peeler/corer/slicer till my rotator cuff complained. They’re simmering in my big stock pot right now, with plenty of cinnamon. Will sweeten to taste after they’re cooked.
I wish we hadn’t given away our food dehydrator. I have the BEST recipe for dried-apple cake.
For one, if you have an oven you can still dehydrate them and two, you can always freeze slices for making applesauce or pies in the winter. I’m hopefully going to get overwhelmed w/ apples from my neighbor’s Ginger Gold tree very soon and I’ll be putting up most of them some way.
Your apple tree may alternate and not bear much next year. Do you recall if it bore much last year? Can you share a picture of an apple from your tree? If you’re in the South it sounds like you have a Lodi.
The larger ones had a distinct “Delicious”-type shape, with little feet on the bottoms. Some sources say that the green parts should turn yellowish if they’re ripe, but these are still green, green, green. The seeds are brown and there were a few unblemished windfalls, so I think it was time.
We are in the Puget Sound area, so not south at all.
We didn’t get any sound apples from it last year. Plenty of wormy windfalls. My husband has pruned it since then, though, and apples from the pruned parts are twice as big as the others.
Those are happy, beautiful apples! I can see the feet for sure. What color is the flesh? They remind me the most of Gala, which are a Delicious cross. Have a glance at the beauties on this list.
Flesh is pure white and oxidizes very quickly. There is a pronounced “floury” texture, though they aren’t mealy at all. The applesauce I made yesterday is fantastic–it has real heft to it, if that makes sense.
Gala apples are my go-to storebought variety. These have a very different texture.
