There may not be as many options as you would like. Here in Los Osos it is a hot day if we make it into the 70's during the Summer and we are often fogged in totally with temps in the 60's. What is classed as "early" by mainstream growers may not ripen here until late summer and those which are classed as "late" will simply never ripen--not enough heat units. I'm not all that familiar with the climate in Eureka, and it's probably colder in the Winter, which is a good thing for chill, but you need to be realistic and remember that "early" or "midseason" could easily mean "late" in the area. "Late" could mean "never". It would be helpful to talk to others in the immediate area to see what has worked for them. Microclimates, heat pockets, south-facing exposures, etc., can all be helpful, but sometimes the selection of what will actually work is not that great.

Scott, some of the things you say confuse me. If you are tasting your apples, what are you looking for? Here's what I look for: A bittersweet will be totally bitter and totally sweet, without any acidity whatsoever. A bittersharp will be totally bitter and acidic, but the sugar content can be all over the map here. So it's more like a culinary or dessert apple with lots of bitterness that you can't taste until the bitter compounds hit the back of your mouth and throat. I think pure bitters are essentially non-existent. A sweet will be essentially sugar, without any acidity, e.g. essentially tannin free. Eating one is a rather odd experience, it's like eating an acidless lime or acidless orange, like sugar water. A sharp is your average culinary and dessert apple. Even Golden delicious falls into the sharp category. The whole point of these categorizations is so that I can combine the proper ratios of sweet to sharp, to bitter. (the latter usually about 10%) So regarding bittersweets, it means you don't want any "sharp" component to it. If you taste a good bittersweet, it will taste bitter and sweet, with no acidity. I have not heard of apples loosing their bitterness as a result of high heat, but I suppose that's possible. I would expect that they will just have a higher sugar content, that's all, and you will therefore need to reduce the amount of pure sweets you add to your cider batches. So now that we have the technical details out of the way, I highly recommend "Amere de Berthecourt", it's a bittersweet apple, incredibly prolific and vigorous fantastic bittersweet in the purest sense - e.g. there isn't a trace of sharpness in it. I grow it here in California and it's got plenty of bitter tannins in it. You bite into it, and you think at first it's totally bland, until the bitter tannins hit the back of your mouth, at which point it's very difficult to actually swallow. This is the effect that you want. This apple originates from Maine-et-Loire, France and it is available in the US. The french selections are infinitely superior to the British apples, mainly because they have been selected for their precociousness. Kingston Black is pretty much a wild apple, it's not worthy as a cider apple because it is such a shy bearer. If you were making cider commercially, you'd go broke if you tried to grow kingston black. A few notes on heat: heat doesn't necessarily increase the sugar contents in apples - usually the onset of Winter cold does a much better job at drawing the sugars into the apples. So if you're trying to increase the bitterness content to add the "body" to the cider, then heat is in your favor because it will keep the sugars from building too high, that is, as long as the variety in question isn't heat sensitive - e.g. it doesn't go mealy from hot weather. The trouble with some British apples is that they do go mealy from heat exposure. Amere de B. is an early apple, so it will ripen when it's still warm out, and therefore not draw the sugars as much. And it appears to be very heat resistant, e.g. it doesn't go mealy. Now here's an interesting note on tannins: my understanding of tannins is that tannins contribute all sorts of flavors, not just bitters. So you can have a high level of tannins yet have no bitterness at all. What is strange is that the technical classifications according to Barker's Classification of Cider Apples (LARS 1903) is as follows: Sharp Acid More than 0.45% Tannin less than 0.2% Bittersharp Acid more than 0.45% Tannin more than 0.2% Bittersweet Acid less than 0.45% Tannin more than 0.2% Sweet Acid less than 0.45% Tannin less than Yet you take an apple like "Amere de Berthecourt" which is clearly a bittersweet, you have BRIX 15.0 Acid 0.23% PH 4.08 Tannin 0.169% Average weight per apple: 82g So it's low on acidity, yet the tannin levels are still below 0.2%. According to the classification, it would be a sweet, but it's actually a bittersweet, I've tasted it, it's definitely very bitter. Then take Taylor's sweet, it has a malic acid content of 0.18% but the tannins are close to Amere de B at 0.14%. What I am trying to say with this is that the bitterness is not necessarily correlated to the tannin contents, and that bitterness is likely to not be affected by heat, it's only the amount of sugar and malic acid that changes as a function of heat, thus making it seem that an apple might have more or less tannins. I've attached a link for Cider apple compositional data. But I don't think the data is all that helpful in determining which one has the highest bitterness tannins, because the measurement is for tannins as a whole, not just those tannins that contribute to bitterness. Here is a link that might be useful: Cider Apple Compositional Data

I live on a coastal bluff in Solana Beach. I am looking to plant deep root plants to help stabilize the top of the bluff. I thought ice plants were not good for this? Rosea iceplant and Lampranthus is suggested above. Please any advice what to plant. thanks

I'm a bit late for the original poster, but I just had to take the time say hello to a fellow Santa Cruzian. I live in Santa Cruz proper-- right off Branciforte. Haven't logged in for a bit, but after 2 years without one, I've got a yard again and I'm just gearing up to plant. I've got a difficult site (it's a hillside, with eucalyptus trees at the top, and poor/no topsoil), but it's big, and the sun is excellent. I've been stockpiling compost all winter and I can't wait to get going. I know I can get some strawberries, tomatoes and herbs-- at the very least. Whoo hoo springtime!