Why good apples but bad tomatoes?

[greggf]

This season was bad, bad, bad for tomatoes.

Taste goes downhill every year after about August 15th (which means peak flavor is only a week or two, and then only on relatively taste-free early varieties). But this year was worse than usual. Besides getting cloudy gel early, all varieties got mealy, too.

By contrast, "Fedchak Acres" produced its first apple crop this year - two Quinte apples off six young trees, and they are heavenly. And the aroma - holy cow, if I could get tomatoes this good..................!!

I know tomatoes are tropical and apples ain't, but...................

My question is, why would apples taste so good the same season that tomatoes taste so foul? Forming fruit is forming fruit, subjected to the same cool monsoons............

=gregg=

[Polar_Lace]

Gregg.

The Lore & Legend of apples is thus: The sweeter the crop; the harsher the winter.

[greggf]

Robin,

Geez, I wish you hadn't told me that! Is that true?

I'm in Boonville . . . if you're nearby, you're going to be shivering alongside me! Because these apples are just the opposite of the maters. They're like sugar.

=gregg=

[carolyn137]

Yeah Robin, I want to know where you are as well, said this REAL upstate New Yorker as in on the other side of Egg MT from Manchester, VT.

I do NOT consider Westchester Co to be upstate NY so please don't disappoint me.

I bought some local apples recently but haven't yet tried them, all varieties I've never heard of. I want my Macouns, my Honeycrisps, my Empires, my Ginger Golds, my Northern Spies, ya know, the ones I like so much and there are more.

Will taste these newer apples as I continue watching tennis from the US Open.

And my few tomatoes were a bust this year as well and it[s been so cool and rainy that I doubt there will be any more significant ripening before frost arrives.

[Polar_Lace]

Gregg,

Map to your town:

[greggf]

Are you in Binghamton? I was born just down the road in Waverly, I lived in Athens, and my grandparents lived in Sayre! I couldn't have survived without Channel 12, and still live on such a high hill here in Boonville that Channel 12 comes in, snowy but okay.

So your tomatoes should have almost as much frost on them as Carolyn's and mine. :wink:

=gregg fedchak=

[kimpossible]

Looks like Boonville qualifies for the Boondocks!

[greggf]

Oh-oh, look, the maps says that Boonville is the END of the road!

kim, you're in Ontario but near cities and/or the lake? So that gives you actually a milder tomato climate than lots of New England or upstate New York? How are your tomatoes this season?

=gregg=

[carolyn137]

Robin, Robin, Binghamton is western NY, not upstate NY.

Upstate is the area usually thought of above Albany going straight north.

Syracuse, Utica, all are western NY.

Yeah, I'm picky.

Gregg is in upstate and so am I in Salem, NY.

And here's my best story re Binghamton.

I went to Cornell. I was flying home to the Albany area b'c I needed ASAP dental attention. I flew Mohawk airlines, which you probably don't know but they were very safe b'c they flew right above the Thruway and they never flew if there was a foreign molecule of air.

OK, so we flew the big distance from Ithaca to Binghamton and it seems I was in the ladies room when they announced the flight was to leave for Albany.

I ran out to the gate and they called the plane back, told me I couldn't get on until they checked baggage weight, removed two sacks of mail and then let me on.

I've never forgotten that.

[kimpossible]

Gregg - SW Ont Z5b - 1/2 hour from Lake Erie - 1.25 hrs from Lake Ontario, 1 1/2 hrs from Lake Huron. 1/2 hr from London Ont., 1 1/2 hrs from Toronto - definitely a moderating effect from the lakes, but usually Tons of heat & humidity mid-summer!

This season has been great - some extremely hot weather 1st week of August that caused blossom drop, but mostly great temps - decent, regular rainfall (no drought this year!), and if the frost holds off, we'll be going strong for another month!

I'm currently harvesting about 100 reg-size tomatoes and 100 cherries per day. No complaints (except that I'm struggling to keep up! )