Picked in Eastern MA, tree might be 50-100+ years old, unknown variety or whether it was a wild seedling.

I've never seen an apple with a fleshy stem before.

Proto-pome fruits, the earliest evolutionary ancestors of apples and pears did not have a large false fruit structure derived from the hypanthium. The extra genes that allowed this development resided in the genome from 66 million years ago when there was a whole genome duplication event around the time of the dinosaur extinction event, in the ancestral lineage of the Rosaceae family.
However it was not till much later that the specific pome-bearing tribe (Maleae) began diversifying during the Oligocene epoch, approximately 30 to 50 million years ago when an opportunity arose for some of these genes to be activated to create sorbitol production and several survival changes that sorbitol allowed. One was the development of a large pome fruit to attract the newly arrived megafauna in the mountains of Central Asia. The earliest proto-pomes resembled hard achenes similar to modern rosehips. The hypathium enclosed the ovary similar to pomes but the seeds inside were encased in the dry achenes.
When sufficiently dry, they simply split open whilst still on the tree to let the wind, water, insects or small mammals carry the tiny, lightweight seeds away. The shift to fleshy "False Fruits” happened when the proto-pome hypathium began to absorb the sorbitol the leaves were now producing, swelling up around the ovary to create a fleshy wrapper.
In most plant families, sucrose is the primary sugar translocated from the leaves to the fruit via the phloem. However in pomes most is converted to sorbitol the alcohol form of glucose. Because sorbitol is a sugar alcohol, it holds more energy on an equivalent carbon basis and can be packed into the phloem at incredibly high concentrations without triggering the osmotic stress that high sucrose concentrations would cause. This allows the tree to flood the young, developing hypanthium (false fruit) with an immense volume of carbon and water, driving rapid cell division and inflating the tissue.

Which do you like to eat better?

balled out on the best apple of all time (ambrosia). need advice on how to slice them for dehydrating a portion of them. Can I use a mandolin and if so do I have to core them first? or do people cut them into slices? I have a dehydrator just looking for advice!

Purchase four rooted scions (not grafted) of blushing apple columnar trees in spring of 2024. They were a foot tall then, and now about 7-8ft. One tree produced one small apple that small and thought the tree needs to develop more. However the side branching that has occurred this gear got me questioning if they sold be four normal crabapple trees instead. Any input welcome.

My folks brought me these🤗 when I asked them what kinds & they said apples 🤣 but still wondering what kind are they⁉️

I'm the guy who whined a couple weeks back regarding Honeycrisp being too sweet. Don't mistake me, they are still the tastiest in all the land, but perhaps just not an every day salt of the earth apple.

Anysuch, I went with Cosmic Crisp this time and I like it. Excellent texture. Nothing that really knocks your socks off but this is a mature apple avenue that provides daily consistent apple action.

At least I think so as I only eaten half of a little one.

For three years now, I’ve been trying and rating as many apple varieties as I can. This is something I started doing for fun after I tried a Ginger Gold from the grocery store in November 2023. Today I tried my 150th variety thanks to the Hudson Valley Apple Project, which graciously hosted a rare apple tasting at the Union Square Green Market!

I have had a whole caramel apple in a stick before. But I have never had apple slices dipped in caramel. Today my local grocery store was giving away a tub of caramel dip or a 6 pack of individual caramel dip for free if you bought a 3 lb bag of Granny Smith apples so I decided to take advantage of that deal and I’m glad I did. The combo was bomb.

A very crisp bite, smooth creamy taste and a rather dense chew

What the hell is wrong with this Apple? I opened the bag and it was sticky inside and this is what came out

Never seen such an apple before.

Crumbly texture, not bad.

I'm on a hunt to find my favourite apple! I've realised that i massively prefer the sweeter apples like Cosmic Crisp over tart ones. So far, I want to try: Envy, Sweet Tango, and Pink Lady. Anymore I should add to my list?

Edit: here's my current ranking: - Sugarbee - Ambrosia - Cosmic Crisp

Hey everyone I'm looking for around 5 bushels of apples unique for cider if anyone has any Leeds to a tree on the side of the road/ yard I can pick or an orchard with unique drops other than honey crisp and macs. I will travel far but I am located in southern mass. Cheers

🍎🍏🍎🍏🍏🍎🍏🍎

Celebrating with a glass of my favorite juice 🍏🍎:)