Mcintosh is from Ontario. It is grown extensively iin New England. In a cold fall environment, it can stay delicious for weeks. It has an unusual rich aroma, that is unlike other varieties.
Many people in the PNW don't grow it because it turns mushy and isn't as good pretty quickly. It is one of my favorite apples, but I try to eat them they day they become ripe or the next day. Then they are crisp and stunningly delicious.
I chopped part of my tree because I can't eat that many apples and I want some of the other varieties I've grafted in to produce more. The apples that I didn't get to in the first week or so are not nearly as good as the ones fresh off the tree and I eat the other apples first, so I have many of them left over.
Most apples are eaten by other animals or visibly rot. However, that didn't happen to the McIntosh. SOme stayed in the microperforated bags I bought with Jafar years ago. Some just stayed on the ground. By Christmas, I still had tens of Mcintosh laying on the ground, uneaten and not rotten. I ate a few.
They were about like week old Mcintosh apples. Not nearly as good as picked from the tree, but not much worse that picked up a week later in September.
I finally threw the rest in the compost, so as to make nutrition for my plants next year rather than feeding swarms of squirrels to populate more.
I wonder what it is about Mcintosh that makes it so much worse in the first week, but then about the same for the next 3 months.
Anyone else have any ideas?
John S
PDX OR
I have a woman friend, that originally hails from upstate New York.
In her childhood environment, she claims Macs ripened late, in very cold weather, and stayed nice and crispy, stored over-winter, outside, surrounded by snow, under the family mobile home.
So, perhaps it is just too darned warm, here in the Portland Area, for Macs to perform at their best.
Manheart, said something similar about Golden Delicious. That hereabouts, when the fruit ripens in cold wet weather, it achieves its zenith of deliciousness. Keeps a long time too.
From personal experience, during some years, I've had Golden's that were extraordinary. But, not this last harvest. Too warm, late in the year?
Good info, buzzoff.
Marnhart and Orange Pippin have both written about how in some years, some varieties are great and others not. Then it would change the next year. Many of the old timers wrote like that too.
To me, Macs were one of the very top apples here, but only within a day of picking.
I have noticed that general effect on my other apples as well. I always try to check, "Am I delusional, or is this effect really happening this year?"
I guess it makes sense to have a "portfolio" or a quiver of apples at least, to see who breaks out each year. Consistently bad? I'm done with them. Sometimes mediocre, and occasionally brilliant? That's the hard one to decide on.
John S
PDX OR
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