Preparing for Winter V

Wraithlady

Si_Clist said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

no idea of variety as they are just on a tree growing up on top of an old pit-mound near here!

Two of us here betting on Bramley, judging by the close similarity to the ones we picked this morning.  Unless of course they're eaters, in which case your guess is as good as ours ...

They look a lot like the ones we used to get before the tree died - they aren't Bramleys, but they are cookers. We never did find out the variety

Primrose

Eating apples generally stay in solid pieces when gently stewed down.  Bramleys dissolve into a sauce.  We were given some of those Bramley look alike  apples last autumn.  The donor called them pseudo Bramleys because they only semi cooked down and became liquid but their tree produced enough to take them in bulk  to one of those communal apple juice cooperatives where  they made the most delicious apple juice with a real zing.

Jellytotts

We had a tree at our old house which was a mash up of eater/cooker. They look very much like that. We planted it because we wanted an all rounder.....the people that moved in chopped it down the first day to park their car on the lawn.  Heathens!

littlemoney

I have an over 70 year old apple tree. It's a cooker that matures to an eater. The variety is Monarch and keeps till April. Apparently the variety was popular during the war as it needed less sugar than Bramley.

jozbo

Like the Apple talk. We have a couple of bare root trees in very large plastic pots planted last winter after I got them 2 for £10 at Tesco. We need to clear a section of garden with an outbuilding that will give us another space about 5m x 4m that gets sun all day. Only thing is these two trees are not on rootstocks so will probably get too big. Not sure whether to plant both or just one, varieties are discovery and Granny Smith. Advice welcome ! 

Laura_Elsewhere

Si_Clist said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

no idea of variety as they are just on a tree growing up on top of an old pit-mound near here!

Two of us here betting on Bramley, judging by the close similarity to the ones we picked this morning.  Unless of course they're eaters, in which case your guess is as good as ours ...

Well, I've been eating them but then again I always eat the Bramley peel when I peel cooking apples, so... 

They aren't as sharp as Bramleys to eat, though. 

Laura_Elsewhere

littlemoney said:

I have an over 70 year old apple tree. It's a cooker that matures to an eater. The variety is Monarch and keeps till April. Apparently the variety was popular during the war as it needed less sugar than Bramley.

Oooh, now that might be what it is - they keep incredibly well. Not only do they keep generally but when hiking, I can take a bite out of one, stick it in my pocket and have another bite an hour later and so on; I can take a whole day to eat one and the exposed surfaces still don't turn brown or go soft!
(I always hike with apples as I get very thirsty but prefer not to have to a) carry kilos and kilos of water or b) keep finding places to go for a pee!)

MandM90

Laura I am in awe of a person who can make an apple last a day!

littlemoney

Laura_Elsewhere said:

littlemoney said:

I have an over 70 year old apple tree. It's a cooker that matures to an eater. The variety is Monarch and keeps till April. Apparently the variety was popular during the war as it needed less sugar than Bramley.

Oooh, now that might be what it is - they keep incredibly well. Not only do they keep generally but when hiking, I can take a bite out of one, stick it in my pocket and have another bite an hour later and so on; I can take a whole day to eat one and the exposed surfaces still don't turn brown or go soft!
(I always hike with apples as I get very thirsty but prefer not to have to a) carry kilos and kilos of water or b) keep finding places to go for a pee!)

Monarch apples quickly go brown once cut.

Laura_Elsewhere

MandM90 said:

Laura I am in awe of a person who can make an apple last a day!

Oh, only when hiking and it's being used solely for slaking my thirst! I get a very dry mouth and if I'm puffing and panting uphill then it can get really unpleasant for me so being able to pause at he top of the hill and have a bite of apple refreshes my mouth and stops me ending up with a painful sore throat and cracked lips for several days! 

If I'm at home, though... curled up with a book and a bowl of apples I can happily chomp my way through a pound without even pausing.... and I eat them core and all, nice apples, only leaving the stalk!  

@littlemoney, thanks for that, sounds like 'my' tree isn't Monarch after all - but definitely a good re to have discovered, and as it's surrounded by literally shoulder-high nettles and brambles for a good ten foot beyond the branches, I don't think anyone else is bothering