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!

2024 - Took off fairly large east low limb and several other low ones. Good that it was a very light fruit set year (as is usual with this variety - being biennial). Nice healthy tree, looks better, more balanced. 10/1 noticed  some bird pecks on the apples - seeds brown, though too early for fresh eating. They do have that promise of sweet high flavor. Picked the small crop a few days later, 4# - 9 nice sized fruit. 10/18 ate one but it's still early, still rather sharp though juicy, crunchy and eatable. I know it's better later. Kept eating them now and then anyway, getting progressively better till the last one Thanksgiving Day - excellent - flavor, juicy, texture! Much appreciated. Sure missed having this wonderful apple for winter eating this year.

2023 - Pruned some more off top and uprights but realized in summer it really needed more. It overdid itself setting fruit and though I thinned, and thinned, and thinned it was still overloaded, enough that I had to prop up some limbs. (Next year will be some major pruning.) Fruit was clean and healthy, as was tree. 10/8 harvested, leaving all smalls and some on the north that didn't look near to ripe, and still had a total of 8 half bushels - 150#!! Wow. And only one bird peck (not very many birds this year). They need time in storage to develop sweetness and flavor but even off the tree they taste OK, fresh and juicy.

10/29 I decided it would be best to pick the rest of the fruit, leaving just a few for the birds. To my surprise much of the fruit had continued to grow and there were a decent number of nice medium sized apples. I stored two dozen to see how they compare to the earlier harvested crop. Dumped a full 5 gal bucket in the woods for the deer and squirrels. Quite a harvest from this moderately sized tree, especially considering the challenges of the hot and dry spring/summer.

Mid November I started making sauce from mix of Haralson and Black Oxford - so good! The combination of juicy Haralsons and dryer but sweeter (at this time) BlOx's make a great sauce. Haralsons are sweetening but not at their best really until into December and later when they come into their own and we really appreciate their delicious fresh flavor.

First of March sorted the last 50# of Haralsons. Tossed only about 6# smallest or wrinkled. Half others (about 20#) nice, fairly firm, a bit less flavor  now but still good eating. Other half decent but getting wrinkled and a bit rubbery so made and canned sauce. Root cellar in upper 30's-40's. Mild winter so warmer than usual storage.

April 16 ate the last Haralson - still good! Next year I need to save out more for longer fresh eating.  

2022 - Pruned off top tier, ~10", lowering tree to ladder height (~12 ft). Minor other pruning; looks good. Moderate bloom, in scattered zones - south high full, low none - other patches here and there. Had some blossom/tip blight (as many other trees did) - kept pulled off. Noticed a "rough" dark spot on bark. Don't know cause but kept sprayed with ferm. comfrey/spinach (as did all trees with any issues). Looks healthy otherwise. Did some thinning of fruit.

First ripe apple dropped Sept. 29, beautiful, large, brown seeds, tart but some sweet. Had two late 20's frosts. Decided to pick. Very zonal fruit set. Overall a beautiful crop, most med & large, only a few scab or cork, some bird pecked (~ peck). Picked 2 hb, 37#, good fruit. Pretty good for a "light" year. Store for sauce and fresh eating. End Dec. sorted ~ 1/3 soft or damaged made sauce. Some sign of bitter pit rot. Eat rest fresh. Some wrinkled in Jan. but still good eating. As before they sweetened in storage, very good in December.

2021 - Year Off

The Haralson picked a good year for an off year, with another end of May freeze with the apples in full bloom which meant very little fruit. The tree continues healthy, needing just general light pruning. Plus I took the top tier off to get it down to my new ladder height (about 12 ft).

2020 - Big Harvest

Light pruning, thinned out thicker east side. Bloomed vigorously and set vigorously. I thinned the end of June - turns out I should have thinned more. Tree to tall for new ladder - need to bring down next year pruning. End Aug dropping underripe, full size apples, some bug damaged. 9/12 dropping ripe apples, picking up for sauce. Tree is over-loaded w/ fruit I think. 9/17 freeze forecast (was 24 deg at camera, 28 w/in tree) so harvested bottom half of tree. Mostly medium size, look OK -- 3 1/2 hb!  9/25 birds (or one bluejay!) eating, mostly the very good large ones, so picked top half of tree. Look good. Total harvest 132#!  ~3 1/2 bushels.

Later in storage discovered most have tracks (apple maggot?) and some more damage but no worms. Not sweetening up much this year but OK. Root cellar warm early maybe due to record hot summer, apples not keeping as well but OK. Sorting through and making sauce as needed from wrinkliest ones through Dec. Kept rest to eat fresh.

March 15 (2021) - We celebrated a "busy" five days* by enjoying the final  apple of the season, fresh from the homestead (root cellar), a Haralson, in pretty good shape, especially considering its age, and very good eating. Won't be another until fall. Store apples just can't compare.

* 13-new moon; 14-time change; 15-ides of March; 16-our real Equinox and St. Urho's Day; 17-St Patrick's Day. Whew. Then a couple days off til Saturday, 20th-official Equinox day.

2019 - Nice Fruit!

This was an 'off' year for Haralson for fruit, a variety known for biennial bearing, but it did us well anyway. No bird issues this year so the fruit got to ripen on the tree. What a difference! The first apple dropped October 8, a very nice juicy and tasty specimen. I decided to pick the rest that day. I didn't want them overly ripe for storage, and Haralson has proved to be a good storage apple. The fruit was exceptionally nice. Most were medium to medium large size, very little corking* or any other issues. Though not a large harvest it was welcome and appreciated. I stored 14 pounds of nice apples in their wooden box in the root cellar for later eating. November 1 we ate the first stored Haralson. Delicious! For Thanksgiving and Christmas I made apple crisp, also delicious thanks to the Haralsons. We'll be eeking out the last of the apples but there won't be enough to last until April this year. Maybe next!

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 discovered the fruit, but it appeared ripe and ready to be picked so I did. What a treat to get multiple full baskets of apples.

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! There were only 6 apples left at the New Year. They were still in good shape but I wanted to see how long they would last. Our fresh apple eating dropped to one or two a month - January, February, March... Each time I would choose the 'worst', which wasn't at all bad but slightly less firm feeling, maybe a little wrinkly in the skin than the others. Every time the apple was still good texture inside with flavor getting a little less tart and a little more sweet.

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! 

The apples weren't the highest quality, quite a bit of corking and cracking and on the small side, but we got 17# of apples from this first harvest and were happy to have them. This tree apparently needs the fruit to be thinned (next time!). I did some pruning and thinning of branches which should help in future years. It has reached the height I want, 12'-14' so I'll keep it there. It has a real nice shape - the only apple tree in the orchard that has that 'text book' christmas tree shape. The fruit is on the tart side - it's a 'cooking' type apple and makes reasonably good sauce (with sweetening). Because of the condition of the fruit I didn't store any but they are supposed to be very good storage apples. Something to look forward to in the future.