Apple Investigation

On the farm there is a very well stocked apple orchard full of antique and wild apples that were planted, grafted, and cared for 3 generations of Millers ago. I think that's right... LeAnne's great grandfather was the one that planted and cared for these trees and now here I am wandering through the gnarled old branches completely loaded with unknown apples and I'm taking on the task of trying to figure out what's what.
A lot of them are wild. Some of them are the most delicious apples I've ever eaten. Some I spit out and washed my mouth out. I guess my goal is putting at least a couple of names to the faces of the hundreds of trees.

Step one was marking them, which the friendly neighbor who's adept at carpentry did. Step two was picture taking and test testing... which is what this blog is all about. Well, I think I only got through half of them before I remembered that taste testers usually don't swallow what they're testing and with a belly completely full of apples I had to walk away before I ruined my love of apples. Step three will be testing their pH and sugars and whatever else you need to know about the apples that are going into the cider... which brings me to step four, making the cider and trying new blends. Oh experimentation. It brings out that scientific side of me that was extinguished with the rigors of documenting, test taking, and studying things that had no relevance to everyday life and I had no interest in learning in school. This is real and fun and delicious. It combines being outside with food, the art of pruning, the history of growing things, the physical nature of gathering, crushing, squeezing the juice, and the delicate mixture of flavors to make the perfect tasting apple cider.

...yes. I'm excited. Can't you tell?

Anyway, meet the trees. By posting on here I am hoping to find some antique apple enthusiasts who can give me some insight or point me in the right direction as to what the heck I have here. Oh, and also if anyone wants to swap cuttings of any of these, by all means let me know. I have another bunch of trees to take pictures so more to come....



Kinda sweet, not tart at all, kinda bland but an ok apple flavor






Very overripe, mealy. Possibly a transparent that went far past it's prime but is still holding on to the tree. Pretty gross right now though.


Underripe? Excellent apple flavor. Blushes with the sun?



Lots of drop. Decent flavor apple. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as taste, slightly bitter.



My what cute little apples. My how tart these cute little apples are. Possibly super underripe. Very small apples but they really have a lot of apple flavor.



Excellent yield. Mild sweetness with an excellent tart bite, very good apple flavor.



Excellent yield. Very similar to #6 as far as taste and coloration goes.



A lot had dropped. Interesting flavor. Red ones hit the ground. Some green small tart ones on the tree. Not sweet, more tart and apple flavor, but a little bitter.



#10 Decent production. *** Very sweet!!! *** Not tart at all. Excellent apple flavor. Big beautiful tree.



Possibly same as #10, sweet and very productive.




Lots of drop. Poor shaped tree and crowded from all sides. Very tart! Nice apple flavor but somewhat bitter aftertaste. Maybe underripe?



Two trees in one! Both very established, but the red is so bitter it hurts. Possibly very underripe. Very bitter, decent size and excellent production. The yellow one is similar to #12, very tart as well. Definitely a graft where both types are very productive on one tree.




Odd shape. Shaded. Low production, lots of drop, pretty tart.



Pretzel shaped tree. All apples dropped and covered in wasps. Looks like they dropped awhile ago.



Blushes in the sun. So tart!!!! Maybe underripe? Apples are still pretty small and hold on the tree very well.




Heavy producer. Tastes like an apple, but bland. Nothing really remarkable.



*18* Heavy producer. Beautiful apples. Amazing flavor. Not terribly sweet but great tart apple taste with little to no bitterness. Very juicy! Good enough for the table!


No apples.



Lots of drop. Very tart but very concentrated apple flavor.



Two types of apples on one tree. Yellow apples are small and very tart, butter and hard. The red apples are not too sweet or tart but has a lot of apple taste. Maybe overripe?




*** Delicious. Perfect blend of sweet and tart. Ready now. Amazing flavor. Lots of juice. Maybe the same as 25 - 28?



Small wild apples. Lots have dropped. The ones still on the tree are sour and bitter.



***Huge apples! Excellent for eating! Large and well balanced with nice juicy flavor, just the right amount of tart and sweet. Would put these on my table with pride. Really want to propagate this tree and find out what it is exactly.





There are a group of trees which I think are all the same. They don't look like much but the flavor of this apple is exquisite. Marty says they might be Rhode Island Greening. All trees are producing heavily, even the one that is almost parallel to the ground that when I first saw, I wondered why they heck they wouldn't cut it down. Now that it's producing these amazing apples, there's no way I would think of cutting it down either! Very sweet with just a little tartness and excellent apple flavor. We have plenty of them so I think this should be the staple behind our cider and I want to graft more of these and take some for my orchard at home. These trees are huge and still producing like crazy! Even the trees with bad form are still producing heavily.




After the Rhode Island Greenings, I didn't think that I could taste another apple, but this one isn't bad. Extremely sweet, but kinda bland. Probably the closest to a dessert apple yet though.




Dropped it's entire crop.




Overripe, mealy and unpalatable.



Decent production. Pretty sweet and nice apple flavor.



* Huge apples, shaded but still producing. Excellent for eating, but getting mealy. Very sweet.




Tart tart tart! but not bitter. Small apples






Dropped. Very low production for being in such a prime spot.



Ok, that's it for one day. If you or anyone you know has any information about these apples, please contact me. Oh, or if you just want to stop by to sample some apples, by all means, please do. I'm going to take a couple days off before I go back for seconds. Still plenty of apple trees left to try.