" how did anyone find a Honeycrisp that doesn't taste good?" Unfortunately, it's not that hard - We were visiting our son in San Diego in October 2012 (no fruit here, might as well take a trip) and visited Whole Foods, actually caught an upper level produce employee and chatted - he really wanted to turn me onto HoneyCrisp, there was a big display of 4" ones - insipid - and not that good of texture either - On to Trader Joe's, big display of nasty green 2.25-2.75" HoneyCrisp, obviously off overcropped trees - wish I would have taken pictures, but I was on vacation...
The ones in the local stores recently have been respectable @ $2.49 to $2.99/pound It's hard to grow good ones - twice the price but half the pack-out - a real temptation to lower standards - HoneyCrisp has generated apple excitement like none other in the last 30 years and has reset the bar - it is the new standard by which other varieties are measured and the traditional varieties don't measure up - Jonagored may compete in its week, but there's no comparison a couple weeks later - David On Jan 29, 2014, at 8:05 PM, Shoemaker, William H wrote: > Now the question is, how did anyone find a Honeycrisp that doesn't taste > good? Is it the variety? Is it how its grown? Is it postharvest handling? Is > it all the above? In our markets around Chicago it is really difficult to > find high quality apples of any variety from Washington. They look beautiful, > but lack flavor. I think Washington growers produce great apples. They don't > show up here. I've had excellent Honeycrisp from local orchards in northern > Illinois. In southern IL, they aren't as good. We get Fuji from MI in our > local Aldi that are cheap and outstanding to eat. I think local Red Delicious > are just delicious. But then, everyone knows, Red Delicious is a terrible > apple. Why do we have so much acreage of this apple?!! > > Bill > William H. Shoemaker > Retired fruit and vegetable horticulturist > University of Illinois > wshoe...@illinois.edu > > The problem is, poorly grown HC are just not good tasting apples. They need a > cold winter, heavy thinning to avoid over cropping, calcium sprays every 4-6 > days and careful handling. /// > > > On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Steven Bibula <sbib...@maine.rr.com> wrote: > In Hannaford (a major regional supermarket) today, all apples were 99 cents > per pound, except some smallish, mediocre-looking honeycrisp at $2.49 per > pound. How long can an apple coast in the premium price range on little more > than the name? > > Steven Bibula > Plowshares Community Farm > 236 Sebago Lake Road > Gorham ME 04038 > 207.239.0442 > www.plowsharesmaine.com > > > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop > > > _______________________________________________ > apple-crop mailing list > apple-crop@virtualorchard.net > http://virtualorchard.net/mailman/listinfo/apple-crop
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