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bob_z6

Harrows Delight- astringent?

bob_z6
10 years ago

Has anyone else had an astringent Harrows Delight? I had one fall on 8/3. I assumed that one of the kids brushed it off, as the tree is quite small. But, I ripened it indoors for about a week, at which point it was juicy and a bit soft/yielding when I cut into it. It even had a nice smell and measured 17 brix. But, when I tried it, it was quite astringent. Enough to pucker the mouth a bit and leave it slightly numbed. It wasn't completely inedible, as I ate most of it (wife and daughter tried a tiny piece and said- "no more").

A few days ago (8/9), the tree went from 5 left to 1 on the ground and 1 in the tree (maybe racoons or squirrels). So I brought both in to ripen on the counter again. As I was passing the larger one (non-bagged in the below photo), I saw a small bad spot, so I cut it up. It has even higher brix 18-19, but is still astringent. It was quite juicy and a bit soft. The seeds were mostly, but not completely black.

Has anyone had astringent Harrows Delight? Was it just a matter of it not being ripe enough? I've read that it is picked around August 10th at Harrow, in Canada, so I shouldn't be too far off. Another possibility is that it is a very young tree (2nd leaf).

The below apple is a Williams Pride which I picked at the same time.

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