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Apples |
The ManyTracks Orchard Haralson Apple
planted 2010, on Antonovka rootstock, first fruit 2015
Four decades of Growing
Good Food
in the Northwoods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula |
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Haralson is a popular apple in the upper Midwest, for good reason as it has proven to be happily hardy. It is also stores well which made it perfect for my orchard. Productive and reliable the tree has a wonderful shape, just like the drawings that publications make of what a fruit tree should look like, which none of my other trees do. On the tart side the fruit also has a lot of flavor and sweetens up in storage when it is good for fresh eating. Makes great apple crisp, too! 2019 - Nice Fruit!
* In the spring I spread generous amount of wood ashes around the tree to hopefully mitigate corking on the fruit. Can't say for sure if it was the whole reason, I suspect weather may have had a big hand in it, too, but it sure was nice to have such a minor amount of the fruit affected this year. 2018 - Bumper Crop! After two years of no fruit the
tree decided to go all out - 65# worth! (photo at top) This time I
thinned, going over the tree a number of times when the fruit was small, pulling
off any damaged ones and putting some space between the ones that were left. The
tree was healthy and in good shape and it all paid off. 37# of large/medium
sized good and reasonably good apples for storage, 11# with slight damage
(mostly corking), and 17# smalls/damaged/bird-eaten but they made just fine
sauce. The early drops started the end of August (mostly inferior fruit).
September 19 the jays had
I made sauce as the fall went
on, using the worst fruit first, and we ate some fresh, though they are on the
tart side then. But when the other apples were gone and these were what we had left,
they tasted just fine! Unfortunately, our root cellar doesn't cool down until
into November so it's not the best storage early on. The end of December there
were just a dozen of the best apples left. Some were getting a little rubbery
but not bad, others still nicely firm. The flavor became less acid, sweeter and more
pleasant and more flavor for fresh eating (this is common for storage type
apples). This
is definitely a keeper tree! January apple - slightly rubbery, slightly wrinkled (worst of the 6 saved apples). Even better flavor than December's, good texture. February's - same as January (oh how I wished I'd saved more!). March - same report - 2 left, still firm. Then came the best of the best, the final apple, the first of April. Delicious! Very good. Juicy, clean, not hard crisp but pleasant, slightly more tender than March's apple, nice apple-y flavor, sweeter, less tart, no wrinkles. This is indeed a good storage apple. Possible the end of good storage. Stored in a wooden box in the root cellar at about 40 degrees all winter. I now understand the enthusiasm people have shown for good storage apples. I can't wait for a larger harvest so we can see just how long this apple will last in moderate storage conditions.
2015
- First Harvest!
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Have you read "Frost Dancing - Tips from a Northern Gardener" ? A fun short read. or "Homesteading Adventures" Creating our backwoods homestead--the first 20 years. and "Growing Berries for Food and Fun" A journey you can use in your own garden. |
updated 10/06/2019 |