Apples

[twiddler]

We used the last of the apples stored from last year's crop today.
It was a very good year - our one medium sized Newton Wonder (about 10 feet high) produced 100 kgs.

Not sure i've ever enjoyed a Newton Wonder and would be interested to hear of it's merits (in addition to it's apparent good keeping).

A couple of years ago i visited the orchards at Ampleforth in the autumn and bought a few bags of a few varieties, i remember the Saturn apple was rather nice, but Kent was the variety i remember favouring, good size, pleasant flavour neither too sharp or sweet for my tastes and a nice crisp texture.  Can't comment on keeping qualities as they got eaten pretty quickly!  I bought and enjoyed some good cookers too but have since forgotten the details!

I was in a garden once in early winter where a tree was still bearing huge cookers, i took the liberty of collecting the unwaned windfalls, these went to a good pulp and have good flavour but i've no idea of variety.  Have always appreciated the ability to grow a range of varieties to crop throughout the year but have yet to put it into practice.

MY experiment this year is grafting onto crab apples as they are much cheaper to buy than ususal rootstocks.

[graculus]

It does appear to be a good keeper. We have had sufficiently large crops now for at least 8 years that they don't get all used up until well into the new year. Over the really cold winter of 2010/11 they had ice on their skin in the garage, but thawed out unscathed (whereas this is DETH for potatoes).
They are often described as dual purpose (ie cooker or eater) but to be honest they are a bit sharp to be more than an occasional eat if you are desperate and run out of everything else.
We use them as stewed on their own or mixed with blackcurrants or other soft fruit, in crumbles, and in cakes (such as friendship cake that call for chopped apple or sliced in Norwegian Apple Cake). They are pretty forgiving, in that they don't go from rock hard to foam in an instant; they also bake nicely (remove core and stuff with sultanas.
Our tree at least does not seem to be prone to disease and has been pretty tolerant of our slapdash pruning.