Good for you!
Wish I had Liberty, got some scion wood on a exchange with my Green Gage, several years later I found out that it wasn't liberty, it's similar, but not as good then my Trailman Crab.
I'm still trying to grow State Fair, been freezing back, want to try it in a different location, have seen and tasted on the fruit show here.

Hi Konrad. I would be very happy to send you scion wood from my Liberty next Spring. Let me know if you want me to send you a stick or two. I'm pretty confident that mine is the real thing.

Good luck on the State Fair- ours has been trouble free here. It's an enjoyable apple, kind of a cross between Gala and Transparent. We don't have enough to comment on keeping qualities.

My neighbor has been talking about Whitney Crab, and I may have to find one and see if I can graft it on. (He has a little ornamental crab in his back yard and I might stick it on that.) I know even less about crabs than about other apples, but it's an interesting area.

:-)M

Picked Liberty about a week ago. I'm not a big fan of Mac type apples anyway, but these apples were bad, chalky.

The seeds were brown so I know I didn't pick too early.

Hi, Olpea. I'm sorry to hear that your Liberty experience. We usually find our Liberties quite good- sharp, sweet, crisp, juicy, complex flavors. They can vary according to year, however, and this year seems to have favored them. I wonder if the difference in our experiences is location, weird weather this year, or differing tastes.

It does seem true to me that the seeds can be brown before this apple reaches its prime, but right now the ones we're eating have mostly brown seeds with a few white ones and they strike us as quite good.

I like them much better than local Macs, which are also being picked now. And my wife and I are both fond of Macouns and Winesaps, so that says something about our tastes right there.

Best,

M

Hi Mark,

They were better last year. We did have a fairly long hot dry spell, so that may indeed have contributed to the disappointing flavor. It may be a little taste preference too. I prefer sweet type apples.

I picked my Liberty apples the night before last in the rain. 130 bagged and perfect apples. They are just awesome and I am eating one right now with my lunch at work. I am very popular at apple picking time. Last night I picked most of my golden delicious again in the rain. The birds have begun pecking thru the bags. I have also picked all the Macfree,Freedom Jonafree,and most of the Jonathon. Still looking forward to picking Akane, Fuji, Braeburn, Mutsu, and Gold Rush.
Tom

I think I have been picking my Liberties too early. A few were on the ground and seemed to ripen okay on the counter, but the ones I picked were somewhat underripe. I ate them anyway, as there weren't that many. Still have a few on the tree. It's hard to know when they are ripe, as they are bright red and the seeds are brown. I have been writing down when I pick the different varieties in the hope of eventually developing a schedule of comparative ripening times of my various varieties to use in future years. Northwoodswis

Varmints pulled down one of my bagged Enterprise, which I salvaged. I hope the rest of them hang on the tree and get better in October. Seeds still a bit light, fruit too tart to enjoy.

It does seem to me that Liberty is a little hard to read as to ripening; I know that I've picked them when red with brown seeds and even had a few falling and felt like they weren't quite at their best- only to have a few turn out to be tops some weeks later.

But each mistake is a learning lesson, and heaven knows I should have learned plenty by now ...

:-)Mark

I ate a really good Liberty today at a site I manage which made me realize why a lot of people like this apple. I've never had one as tasty in my own orchard. This one was really big- like a Jonagold size and the color was just beautiful. No summer fungicide and it looked like a grocery store apple- or better.

I don't know what the deal is but this site has a true agricultural clay-loam and it seems to favor certain kinds of apples although I'd expect the opposite with its capacity to hold water. It's been sopping for a month and a half and yet this apple had more brix than any Liberty I've ever tasted.

This entire discussion meanders around the issue of how fruit ripeness is to be judged, and how it seems to be hard to nail down all the details.

A few years ago I read that a particular obscure pear which grows on the Frost Ranch near here consistently wins taste tests at the county fair. That's nice, I thought, and I set about to get a scion for my tree, which I did. I also read that pears are known for being a mite particular about when they are picked, how they are ripened, and so on, to be at their peak. So clearly we are aiming at an ever-moving target here! So how do we know we're judging a fruit at its peak? Vintners understand this problem with grapes, and that's why vintage matters with at least some wines, but such niceties aren't much discussed with apples, pears, peaches, and plums, if I understand correctly.

So is the Frost pear winning taste tests because it's the best pear, or because it doesn't take some special expertise to ripen it properly?

Today I was luvvin' my little pear tree and I realized I'd squished something; at my right heel was half a Frost pear and a bit of squish. This was my first Frost pear, and I'd just squished half of it!

I picked up the un-squished half and ate it. Boy, it was good.

:-)Mark

I recall having Liberty apples at my previous home and thought they were quite good. At my current farm I got my first Liberty apple about a week ago and, again, it was quite good. I wouldn't have put it amongst my very favorite for fresh eating but it was certainly good enough to be considered a keeper. My orchard is young and I only had ONE Liberty apple on my 3 or 4 Liberty trees. Because of that and our recent rains, it was very large and absolutely pristine in appearance. Although I don't recall having used them for pies or anything else, I get the impression that it will be a good dual use apple as well. Overall I'm very pleased with the Liberties that I've had previously and my one apple from this season.

I think Liberties are very easy to tell when they are ripe. Their green background color changes to yellow and they easily pull from the tree. Also the apples ripen sequentially so even if the first you taste are too soft there's bound to be other less gone apples on the tree if you've been paying any attention at all.

Some pears are fine tree ripened, at least as grown here. Bosc and Seckel are two but other varieties rot in the center when left on the tree until ripe. Such varieties can be very tricky.

Thanks Mark on the offer.
Unfortunately it's illegal crossing boarders, ..think someone has it in our fruit group.

We are still going thru drought and have had many 100+ days. Liberty is normally one of my best apples....not this year. They did not get normal size. The earlier ones were about 2/3 normal size. All others are about the size of crabs. They had nice flavor and sweetness, but nothing near normal. None have been crisp as usual. I don't care for apples that are not crisp, so I have been bagging, freezing, and will use them in a batch of fruit wine. None of my apples have been crisp this year. Only thing left are two trees of Sundowner. They are not getting any size either. Hope they are crisp. Don't know if it's the excessive heat, lack of rain, or both making them soft. Am seriously considering pulling them.

I wouldn't pull trees based on the results of unusual weather.