I'd like to take a bite out of every one of those... you take after my own heart as I also love apples even though I have no room here for them now... I've only grown 'St Edmunds Russet' of those, and most I've not heard of...

I think it's wonderful that they still grow them and preserve them in this way... and you've presented them beautifully, enough to entice anyone I should think...

Enjoy your apples !!.. I expect you'll be saving some for a Thanksgiving pie...

Well, I'm glad that there are other apple lovers on this forum! Sadly, rose midge destroyed all the buds on my reblooming roses and I have no rose photos to show for this time of the year. Luckily, as a sort of consolation, it's timely for my other obsessions, above all the fall apples. I'm working on preventing rose midge infestation, as much as possible, for next year.

Marlorena, as it were, St. Edmund's Russett was my snack apple last night! Delicious. Russetts are my weakness and, though used mostly for ciders, I really like to eat them fresh. I must confess that I never mastered making pie crusts, so I make cobblers or one old dessert known here as Brown Betty. (Newtown Pippin is usually my culinary choice which, from what I read, was the apple-pie choice in the past until Granny Smith replaced it in the US market.)

Jin, you have gorgeous citrus fruit in Florida! I would *love* to be able to grow satsuma mandarins... Since many of these apples store well, I hope that there are suppliers of vintage varieties for Florida. Hope you find some!

Vesfl, I am experiencing the same with rose midge here. Fall is coming I am not going to treat roses anymore. Now they’re going through BS. Bought a country property that has a few apple, pears and peach trees. If I show you the apple photos would you please tell me what kind of apples they are? Would you please give it a try? :-) Will post photos when I get home.

Summers, I'll definitely give it a try, though I'm really not an expert, just an enthusiastic apple eater :-) If I can't ID them, I will show them to this heirloom orchard owner when we go there for the next round of apple-picking. Hope your photos will make it through on this thread.

I remember you mentioning that you also had a rose midge infestation which must have been even more heart-braking than in my case as I have way less roses than you do. So sorry about it... let's hope next year will be better.

Ooh, yummy pictures... the local cider mill presses apples daily, and the smell in there is out of this world. They sell doughnuts, pies, cider along with the bins of apples.

I especially like the cider... as the different apple varieties come to market throughout the season, the cider flavor varies, sometimes more sweet, sometimes more tangy. I have cider in the fridge now...

One of the things I like best about autumn is strolling out in the countryside and coming across an old apple tree.

Thanks for posting these heirlooms. What is the name of the orchard...?

Oh, Krista, thanks for enabling! As I'm reading your comment, I'm heading off to my fridge for another glass of apple cider.

It is LynOaken Farms, located in Medina, NY. We love it because it's not crowded and noisy, as is usual with "tourist" orchards, and it's lined up with dozens and dozens of apple tree rows, each tree a different variety. Hope you can make it there one day. This photo might give you an idea of this kind of orchard. I let myself get lost there for hours with my ziploc bags, labels and pen. I used to be the only one ("nerdy" apple-picker, no?), but now I hear that a few other people are coming armed with ziplocs for apple sampling and pencils, which is all good!

How gorgeous are those apples! I’m also a big apple lover (we do have a quite of few low-chill varieties & southern heritage apples we can grow here) but none of those classics! I was amazed at how much variety there can be in apple flavors once I started trying apples other than the grocery store bland ones! Kudos to you Vesfl, for supporting these orchards! Our heritage apples are as much at risk as our antique roses. :-)

Thanks, Vesfl. I will bookmark the orchard. I love the Lake Ontario region, and it's been too long since I've seen Niagara Falls. It's so beautiful there... those falls are awesome!

The cider is nutritious, with the pulp, a cut above regular apple juice. Very refreshing!

Perma, indeed, both antique roses and apples (and other heritage) are worth preserving. Since both belong to the rosaceae family, I hope to be forgiven for posting this on the antique rose forum :-)

Summers, yours look wonderful! Some of my very favorite apples for taste are not "picture perfect" ... I'm afraid the industry has gone in the direction of favoring nice looking apples at the expense of their taste.

This is going to be a tough one for my guesswork, but when I saw your second photo, Gravenstein almost immediately came to mind only because just the other day I had some and even used it in my smoothie. I assume that yours are among more common heirloom varieties and early in the season (if these photos were taken today). If it's Gravenstein, it's a great apple and was very popular for cooking and pies. I could be wrong, of course, but it looks almost exactly the same as the ones I had last week. That said, if it is sizable, then it could also be 'Summer Rambo', an old French apple that I also happened to have had last week...

There are a few variables that help narrow down these and other apples, and that's the fruit size, taste, flesh color, also the tree size and shape, and similar. There is a terrific old book in 2 volumes "The Apples of New York" by Beach and sponsored by the State of NY, still used as an excellent reference source even though it was published in 1905. Over 1,000 pages of detailed descriptions of each variety, many generously illustrated with mostly color plates and, best of all, available for free as it's in public domain:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56420#page/11/mode/1up

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/137662#page/7/mode/1up

I'll see with the orchard folks about this and the other two of your apples. I plan to go there again in early October.

Wow, you know a lot about apples! Thanks vesfl! You are not growing any? I don’t know how to bake apple pies though. Don’t have time to can them either. Lol We have a family just moved in the carriage house, I am going to tell them to help themselves . Also have a few common pear trees. I have been collecting some interesting fruit trees this spring, persimmons, Jujube, ordered 2 Paw paw trees for next spring. Have never tasted paw paw before, but everyone on the orchard forum love it, I have to give it a try.

Vesfl, what an interesting thread. You have Cox’s Orange Pippin, my favourite when I grew up in Holland. I used to be able to get them here, but the trees were cut down, did not bear reliably enough :-(. I also remember loving Benoni. And In Korea there was a great little apple with a very ‘appley’ perfume, which gave the most beautiful jelly. To my great surprise I found it back here in Canada, under its Japanese name Akane. Those trees also were cut down...

Enjoy your lovely apples.

gdinieontario, thank you. I saw Akane at this orchard! Didn't have a chance to try it and will have to do it next time.

I also love Cox's Orange Pippin and always get it in larger quantities than just a couple of samples.

On one of the photos I posted above, there is an apple from Holland, Belle de Boskoop (Schone van Boskoop). I'll try it later because I read that it takes a few weeks after the harvest for its flavor to peak. I heard, but not sure how much it's correct, that it's still very popular as a cooking apple in Holland. It's a wonderful country and I fondly remember our visit to Amsterdam where we once celebrated New Year with very friendly people on the streets.

Summers, alas I don't have enough areas in full sun to grow apples. They are reserved mostly for roses (surprise, right?) and one large lilac.

Summers, I would happily eat your “ugly” apples any day—I bet the flavor is far better than “pretty” grocery store apples. (And if you waxed yours like grocery store apples, they would be shinier, but I like apples without wax myself.) :-)

Yes, Schone van Boskoop is better known in Holland as “goudreinet”. It is still very popular as a cooking apple, for pies and also apple sauce. I have eaten it fresh too, and I like it, but it can be pretty tart, and it is definitely hard. My dad with his dentures was not a fan ;-). Better to eat it sliced maybe. I wish I could get all those old apple varieties here!

Vesfl, are you a chef? I am just guessing by looking at your kitchen counter spice collection. :-) I have a feeling that you know more than just apples. Food & cooking is your thing, am I right??

Summers, I wish I'm a good cook, let alone chef! No, those spices were just there for annual refills which I usually do at this time of the year when fresh herbs are less available. Most end up being used only sparingly. That said, you are right that food & cooking are my thing but mostly by reading cookbooks (don't even ask how many culinary related books I have, it's insane) :-)

I found my Akane back! Bennett’s in Ancaster ON has them again. Eating one right now! Yummmmmm.

I have deer problem, all the apples on the lower branches were long gone. Our new tenants told me they saw deer eating apples. I am planning to pick a few tomorrow, got to make some apple crisp! :-)

I have collected so many cook books from library book sales, used book stores. But when it's time to cook, I just google the easiest receipt. It's easier than look through all the books and pages. Lol

Meant to add to this one; if wanting to grow orchard fruit (and berries!) I highly recommend Michael Phillips’ book “Holistic Orchard”—-his approach is very soil-focused and he demystifies all that made growing fruit trees seem complicated. :-)

Vesfl, I was delighted to read your story! Like you, I am almost as fond of heirloom apples as I am of heirloom roses. Considerations of space force me to be more selective with trees. I have half a dozen, and if I decide to add another, I will remove one first.

Just today my DH Tom and I went to Filoli, a lovely estate garden in Woodside, California. They were having their Fall Festival. We got to taste more than 30 different varieties, some of which I never heard of before. My favorite was one I grow, Ashmead's Kernel. But my second favorite of the ones they had is one I never heard of before, Cinnamon Spice. Also very good was Hudson's Golden Gem (I grow this one). Favorites of mine I did not see there were Empire (a comparatively young apple from NY State), Stayman, and Mountaineer, a seedling of York Imperial, lopsided like its parent.

Rosefolly

P.S. I am not having a great apple year. Not enough chill last winter, plus I was stingy with the watering. We live and learn.

Thank you so much for sharing! I wish it were a little closer so I could make a day trip out of it visiting the orchard. They all look delicious and I also love russet apples. I remember visiting the Ithaca Farmers Market one fall and they were full of apples (and winter squash - another love of mine). One of the vendors had slices for tasting and discussed the flavor profiles like we were discussing wine. So much fun. I have 2 apple trees; Liberty and William's Pride but I always forget which is which. I got a good harvest off of one of them, but none on the other. I was too late to bag the apples and the bugs got to them first. I get a little better at this each year. I bet you could make delicious apple sauce by combining different varieties.

-Chris

Rosefolly, Ashmead's Kernel is one of my absolute favorites! If I were to grow only one apple tree, it would probably be it. Well, maybe Esopus Spitzenburg too... Of those you mention, Empire apples can often be found in grocery stores here, indeed probably because it's from NY state. I have never heard of Cinnamon Spice either. It's difficult to resist apples with such names. This year one of the highlights was when we saw for the first time Black Gilliflower, nicknamed 'Sheep Nose' (a very old variety from Connecticut, 1700s). We were twisting our heads and looking at all angles to see if any looked like it, and lo' and behold quite a few had the shape of a sheep's head from profile view. It gave me a chuckle. I picked a couple but haven't yet tried them, they still need to ripen a bit.

Chris, I've looked up your two apples and they do indeed look similar, but both must be very delicious. Ha, just this morning I made applesauce! The best advice I got about making it, and incidentally it's from the good people at this orchard, is to mix several different varieties, tart and sweet. And I also love how the kitchen then smells, ... autumn is here.

gdinieontario, I'm glad about you found Akane and many thanks for mentioning this orchard. It looks like a nice place to visit when in Ontario.

Summers, I also like looking at online recipes. They have the advantage of readers' comments, truly tried & tested. And valuable especially when more than one person make similar suggestions for altering the recipe.

Perma, I'll mention this book to the orchard owner because, as a family-owned farm with more than 300 varieties, they are not entirely organic but do try to reduce chemicals and use integrated pest management. Thank you.