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Post by Sandbur on Jul 4, 2021 9:08:15 GMT -6
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Post by Sandbur on Jul 9, 2021 17:57:28 GMT -6
     The work by the U of Mn consists of trying some old world cider varieties in Minnesota. One of the University people point out that for 100 years, Minnesota worked at breeding the bitters out of apples. Much of the discussion focused on these varieties and the rootstocks they were trying in high density orchards. The owner of Milk and Honey Ciders feels that the American tastes will evolve to more bitters like the European market. Some other tidbits I remember. The U of Mn May start promoting Mn 1734, all though it is not part of the study. The owner of Milk and Honey likes Mn1734,chestnut, and Golden Russet for ciders. Perhaps he included Kerr in this list. We tasted some single variety ciders made by a U of Mn employee. Post covid, many tasted the same to me. I could detect a slightly different aroma and feel in the mouth between some of them. |
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Post by Sandbur on Jul 9, 2021 18:02:11 GMT -6
I had hoped Minnesota would evaluate some of their thousands of seedlings in their breeding program of table apples for cider use. There was no discussion of that. I also asked if they tried bringing any wild crab pollen into breeding for a study. Answer was no.
Overall, I am not going to try any of the rootstock or varieties they were testing. I fear they just are not hardy enough for my location.
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Post by Sandbur on Jul 10, 2021 9:50:59 GMT -6
The owner of the facility did mention a few other things. He does not thin apples as they want lots of apples with lower inputs, unlike your super quality table apples.
He also said that he is trying something at his original orchard to see if he can increase production by letting grass grow around the trees and to stress them a bit. I don’t remember the variety of rootstock or apple. Most of what he used were dwarf varieties of rootstock. This reminded me of those who took a baseball bat to the trunk to stimulate production.
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Post by Sandbur on Aug 22, 2021 15:09:32 GMT -6
   At the above meeting, they discussed how the U of Mn was working with cooperating growers to evaluate European cider varieties. They mentioned the search for a hardy bitters for Mn. I met a fellow apple grower/ deer hunter at the meeting and he came over and looked at my trees. Then we stopped and visited with the owners of this feral tree that I have driven by for about 40 years. After tasting it, I know what bitters are! |
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Post by Sandbur on Aug 22, 2021 15:11:56 GMT -6
At the above meeting, they discussed how the U of Mn was working with cooperating growers to evaluate European cider varieties. They mentioned the search for a hardy bitters for Mn. I met a fellow apple grower/ deer hunter at the meeting and he came over and looked at my trees. Then we stopped and visited with the owners of this feral tree that I have driven by for about 40 years. After tasting it, I know what bitters are! The owner said the applecrabs are often just slightly bigger in none drought years. I still think some of the above studies should focus on what we got growing here instead of pushing the hardiness with foreign varieties. |
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