Our apple tree is far from laden, and the few left hanging still need time to ripen. A few years back, we’d brought a few samples to MOFGA’s Great Maine Apple Day where, after close examination and tasting, apple identifier John Bunker pronounced them Priscillas. All we know is that they taste best harvested in late October, when temperatures have taken a decided dip, and store well into winter. Their best use is sauced or baked, that is if we can get to them before the deer do.
Harvesting:
Yukon Gold potatoes; winter squash (delicata, spaghetti, Tromboncino); favas; shishito peppers; summer squash (Zephyr, Costata); carrot thinnings; fennel; cherry tomatoes; winter pomodorini; radishes; chicories (puntarelle, cime di rapa, hon tsa tai); kale; chard; salad greens.
Putting-Up:
Lacto-fermented salsa; canned kale; canned carrot pepper salsa; broccoli pesto for freezing.
Diary of a Tomato 
Oh, how wonderful to have your heirloom apples identified! Yesterday I nudged down two apples from the old, old tree, and will be tasting them raw and cooked – but will never know their name.
I’ll bet Ben Watson out your way would know… ;)
I love that you had your apple tree identified.
And such a girlish name!
I do everything, and I mean everything, to deter deer. Last winter, we actually saw a herd of 8 in our back yard several times. I couldn’t believe it. In the spring when I was speaking with my eccentric neighbor she remarked how her shrubs had been reduced to stubs by the deer, and she couldn’t understand it because she has put out a salt block and food all winter. LOL I tried to convince her not to feed them, but I’m not sure I made my point. The cold winter months will tell. Hope you get some of your apples. :-)
Have you had luck keeping the deer away with any particular thing? At the moment we have chunks of Irish Spring strung up all around, looking like little elf bathing spots…
Here is a link to a product a fellow MG has used for several years. She puts it around the edge of her yard and says she watches the deer walk all over her neighbors yards all winter but they stay out of her yard. http://www.lowes.com/pd_97821-1321-498069_?PL=1&productId=3069739
Thanks for the tip! I wonder what the deterring ingredient is… Supposedly it’s the tallow in Irish Spring soap, and not necessarily the strong scent!
I don’t honestly know but there is a deer herd that hangs in her rural area in the winter and they would ravage everything. But, she says she can watch them walk “around” her yard and stay in her neighbors’ yards.
What if you net your apples, will that deter the deer? I see you are growing your tromboncino as a winter squash, I am experimenting by allowing one to mature.
We liked the idea that the tromboncino can also be a summer squash, but discovered that we have more than enough of those already growing in the garden! We’re leaving most of the tromboncino out to mature as long as weather permits.
Back in the 70’s, an article in Organic Gardening magazine recommended growing Priscilla and Prima as two new varieties that were resistant to a number of apple diseases. Our trees are huge now and put out large numbers of apples in spite of never being sprayed in an area surrounded by non-organic orchards. We use them mostly dried and in applesauce.
Thanks so much for the info and sharing your experience with the Priscillas! The fact that our sample was so disease resistant w/o spraying was one of the identifying factors. We found they’re best if left to hang as far into the season as we can, and try to pick just before first frost. We agree, they’re splendid for applesauce!
Having an apple tree in my garden is a dream of mine, but my attempts so far have ended in nothing, so I look at your photo and sigh.
Actually, in Berkeley we had a tree that every other year carried quite a number of fruits but the resident buck got them before we could, so we never harvested any.
I never gardened while living in Berkeley, that was back in another life, so never realized there were deer to contend with, even there!