Apple tasting with Redwood Empire CRFG chapter and tour of Main Street Trees in Napa, CA

We had over 60 apple varieties to try

We also tasted a number of pears. Warren, #17 was my favorite 

American persimmons, D. virginiana. We had two cultivars to try

Pears are getting cut

Various other fruits and black walnuts were offered for tasting too

Cut apples

We had at least 4 varieties of quince, Aromatnaya and Kaunching are upfront

Feijoa fruits

Cut pears

Tallying the taste scores for apples and pears

Apple display 

Touring the orchard at Main Street Trees nursery

The nursery grows and sells very large native oak and fruit trees.  They are grown in fabric containers, and they move them to larger containers every year.

 http://mainstreettrees.com/ 

Tasting pomegranates: Eversweet, Myatadzhy, Medovyi Vasha, Vkusnyi, Cranberry

These all are Early and Mid-season varieties. Eversweet and Cranberry originated in the USA. Myatadzhy, Medovyi Vasha, and Vkusnyi were developed in the USSR/Turkmenistan. I grow all of these with the exception of Medovyi Vasha. Medovyi Vasha fruits came from Harvey Correia.

Eversweet is usually my earliest pomegranate and we used to pick it early October in previous years. This year (2016) I collected the first fruits on September 9, and they were ready.  This pom is very sweet with very soft seeds. light pink juice.  Definitely going to continue growing it.

Myatadzhy is more complex in flavor, and ripens few weeks after Eversweet. Dark red arils, very soft seeds, more acid than Eversweet.  Definitely a keeper in my yard. Overlaps for few weeks with Eversweet.

Medovyi Vasha

Very sweet, soft-seeded, large dark arils.  Not much complexity in flavor, and some people detect the straw flavor in it.  It seems to be better flavored when picked earlier in the season.  The fruits picked mid-October 2016 were good.  My husband actually likes this variety, and I can live without it.

Cranberry

Large fruits with large red arils, hard seeds.  The flavor is rich, complex, and compensates for the hard seeds. The plant is vigorous grower, fruited in the second year in my yard.  Definitely a keeper.

Vkusnyi

Mid-season variety, one of the best.  Dark red arils, soft seeds, complex flavor with lots of sugar and acid. This variety is a must-have for the mid-season harvest.

The dormant cuttings of these and other pomegranates are usually available during our winter sales at reallygoodplants.com

Tasting pomegranates: Dewey, Garnet Sash (Elf), and Mae

I picked fruits of these three cultivars on October 9, 2016. They all are sweet, and all have large hard seeds.

Mae has the most acid, and a little of bitterness, but still pretty sweet. Probably the least desirable fruit from this set.

Garnet Sash has the the largest and hardest seeds.  The arils are sweet with a bit of vanilla flavor.

Dewey is sweet with slight acidic tone. Probably the most juicy one out of these three cultivars. If I had to select the best out of these three cultivars, Dewey would be the one for me.

All these are less desirable when compared to a fruit of Vkusnyi pomegranate, that is ready now too.
However, they are certainly add to the tasting experience of pom flavors and may have other important traits outside of flavor and seed size.

Mae fruit

Garnet Sash (Elf) fruit

Dewey fruit