Gifts of the Commons: A is for Apple: Varieties On the Hillside

A is for Apple (P is for Perennials)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Almonds

Two almond trees--maybe same variety All-in-one (reference to self-fertile), but maybe not. We eat them from green stage to mature almonds, and they're really tasty.

Apples

Anna - Extremely early, low-chill variety. This year (2014) first apples harvested on May 15. Often blooming in the middle of winter, when other apples have months to even wake up from dormancy.

Fuji - This tree is one of older trees in garden. It's very productive and reliable. Every year we store a lot of the crop.

Dorset Golden - Low chill, extremely early variety. Good flavor. Rosy blush on green coloration.

Golden Delicious - Good apples. Tasty juicer. Tree hosts grafts of several other varieties.

Granny Smith - "Just like Granny used to grow." Tree-riped apples gave John a whole new outlook on Granny Smith. Never had such a flavorful and sweet Granny Smith. Also, hosts other grafted varieties.

Pink Lady - Late variety (needs time to ripen). Gophers ate half the roots this year. John grafted several scions onto other trees.

Pink Pearl - Tart apple, reminiscent of store-bought Granny Smith. Good apple. Beautiful red color inside. The blossoms are dark pink.

MacIntosh - Early variety, after Anna & Dorset. Red and green. Smells very fragrant from outside when ripe. Fills your soul.

Multi-Grafted - Almost all the trees have different apples grafted on them. Grafting is the union of a brach from a different variety from a different tree onto a branch of similar size.

Apricots

Apricots are one of many favorites. John's been collecting them over the years. Nearly all variety names have been lost, but John has been grafting from the existing trees onto cherry plums and onto other stone fruits. There's one variety that's never borne fruit, Sweet Pit, here, but is supposed to have a particularly tasty pit, like an almond.

Asparagus

Asparagus is in many places in garden, mostly in places where there was one time a patch, and some are still surviving. Many of them are from seed that I collected, often grown out in flats. The purple variety is really good--sweet when you eat it raw off the plant. As many may or may not know, asparagus is a perennial vegetable, that requires 3 years, from seed or placing in ground to harvest.

Arrowroot

An Edible Canna variety

Autumn Olives

Autumn Olives are rarely seen, but deserve a place in your landscaping. Some autumn olives are actually planted for their ornamental appeal (though not often with choice fruit varieties in mind), because the leaves have a shimmery flecked foliage. The berries also appear to be flecked with gold. The fruits can be red, orange or yellow. They are somewhat related to the olives we know. They also help fix nitrogen in the soil. What a deal! The fruits are small, chewy & yummy. They are more closely related to the "Goumi" berry, & similarly, reminiscent of a gummy bear, if Mother Nature were to have such a thing.

Avocados

One of the first trees planted here was avocado direct-sown from a Hass fruit (from the grocery store). It's delicious; creamy, thin-skinned, good fat content/buttery--which maybe is what makes the avocado taste good.
Many varieties will thrive in the bay area. You can get a year-round crop with selected varieties. It will be approximately 7-10 years to harvest fruit from seed. The fruit of a seedling will be a hybrid of the parent plant & its pollinator. Also note: Avocado trees require pollination from compatible varieties. Young avocado trees require extra care to reach maturity, plenty of water & some need protection from frost.
Hass - John had a great harvest one year. The Hass variety seems promising. "One of tastiest avocados I've eaten," says John.

Mexicola - High ratings-- very good. Skin is edible, very thin-skinned, very small fruits but extremely tasty. Every year it gives a lot of fruit on a small/medium sized tree.

Bacon - Thin, green skinned. Less rich, but delicious. It's borne heavy crops, year to year, when the tree is happy.
The following are also here.
Mexicola Grande
Fuerte
Stuart
Reed seedling
At least 20 Seedlings on property.

Azarole

These fruits often catch the eye of visitors to the garden, with the bright red orangey fruits. They can be eaten, but are not very delicious (just sort of bland, pastey & seedy). They offer a higher medicinal value. They are purportedly very good for your heart's health.

B

Babaco Papaya

Babaco Papayas are an exciting fruit for our micro-climate. They are native to Andean regions of South America. The fruit is sometimes described as a mix between peaches, pineapple & mangos. They are different than the orange papayas we know from tropical places. They are juicier, with melting flesh that when is fully ripe it offers a complex & delicious palette of flavors. They can take some cold, but should be protected from frost, on those few cold nights of the year…but it's worth it. They are seedless, propagated from cuttings.

Bamboo

John has collected many varieties for their beauty and function. He uses them for stakes, chicken fodder, & because they make nice screens. There's endless things one can do with bamboo. John's done so many projects with bamboo and he's really inspired by it. The spread is controlled often by eating the bamboo shoots. He has many varieties (approximately 12 now), here a few off-the-top of his head:
Chocolate
Giant Black
Golden
Timber

Bananas

John has forgotten the names of many varieties grown here. There are two plants going into flower now, which are of Sikki Mensis variety.
Raja Puri
Sikki Mensis

Bay Leaf (culinary)

Berries

There are dozens of types of berries on the hillside. For specific varieties, see also- Blackberries (common, Thornless, Native), Blueberries, Boysenberries, Cape Gooseberries, Darwin berries, Goji Berries, Huckleberries, Jostaberries, Loganberries, Mulberries, Tayberries, Serviceberries (aka Saskatoon), Strawberries (Alpine, Seascape/Everbearing/Junebearing, Musk, Woodland Alpine), Strawberry Tree (aka Arbutus).

Blackberries

-Common
-Thornless
-Native

Blueberries

Boysenberries

C

Cape Gooseberries

Calamondin

Cardoon

Chaste Tree

Chayote

Cherimoya

Mark Twain once referred to this fruit, the cherimoya, as “deliciousness itself.” It is native to the Andes, but despite its tropical flavor palette, can be grown here as it is a subtropical species. In more specific terms, this is how it's been described: "The velvety flesh of a Cherimoya is a delicious, custardy blend of banana, pineapple and strawberry notes."

Che

AKA Chinese Melonberry

An unusual subtropic berry. John heard about this during his presidency with the local California Rare Fruit Growers chapter.

Cherries

Sweet Cherries, Lapins variety

Sour/Pie Cherries

Cherries here at the hillside homestead include Mini Royal, Royal Lee, & Lapins (sweet), all low-chill varieties, & a sour cherry tree.

Cherry of the Rio Grande

(Eugenia aggregata)

Citrus-
see Calamondin, Grapefruit (Chinese, Cocktail, Pink), Kumquats, Lemons (Eureka, Variegated Pink, Ponderosa, Meyers), Limes (Bearss, Lime Leaf Tree, Mexican/Key, Mexican Sweet, Palestinian Sweet), Oranges (Cara-cara, Jaffa, Trovita, Valencia), Pink Grapefruit, Pomelo, Tangerines, Tangor.

Coquitos (Chilean Wine Palm)

Cornelian Cherry

Currants

Red, White, Black & Native: Pink-Flowering & Evergreen (Catalina Perfume).

Red Currants

White Currants

Catalina Perfume/Evergreen (Native, Nonfruiting)

Curry Leaf

D

Darwin Berries

Dragonfruit

E

Elderberries

Elderberry fruits & a very noisy hummingbird

Elderflowers

F

Figs

Most figs do well if there's hot weather in the summer. If we have cool summers, then certain varieties won't ripen properly. Yet, for the most part, there's enough sunny days in late summer to get a good crop. Coastally adapted varieties are a sure bet.
There are at least 10 varieties on the hillside. They range from green skinned with amber inside to green with red or green with pink to the dark Mission figs of the front yard. We even have a shade tolerant variety that has grown well along the side of the house.

Feijoa (aka: Acca, Pineapple Guava; See Guava)

Fo Ti Root

G

Goji Berries

Goji Flowers

Goumi

A delicious berry, reminiscent of a gummy bear. Member of the eleagnus family (including Olives & Autumn Olives). Like the Autumn Olive, it fixes nitrogen to the soil, thus improving soil over time. It has beautiful green leaves with gold flecks. The fruit turns from gold to red, also with gold flecks.

Grapefruit

Chinese, Cocktail, Pink

Cocktail Grapefruits & Peas

Pink Grapefruit

Grapes

Native grapes silhouette by bay

Native bunches

Grape Alley

Flame table grapes

Muscat

John says, "I like all kinds of grapes. I am always collecting new varieties." There are probably around 10, or so, varieties on the hillside. Not all grape varieties that have been traditionally grown in the United States do well in our not-so-hot & sometimes foggy summers. The grapes we grow include 1 or 2 wine grapes, several common market grapes, like Flame & Thompson, the tasty Muscat type flavored grapes, the juice favorite Concord & the native grapes that offer the lovely red fall color as the season turns.

Concord grapes over the scarlet runner beans

Guava

Pineapple Guava

Pineapple Guava

Flowers are edible

Strawberry Guava
Lemon Guava
Chilean Guava (aka Ugni)
(Tropical) Guava

H

Hawthorne

Hazelnut

California Native & European variety

Holly-leaf Cherry

Huckleberries

Ice Cream Bean Tree

J

Jostaberries

Jujube

K

Kiwi

Kumquat

A variety of citrus, oval shaped orange fruits.

L

Pink (variegated) in front of winter sky

Lemons

Eureka

Pink Lemon (variegated)

Ponderosa
Meyers

Mostly Meyers (left) & Bearss limes

Limes

Bearss (Persian)
Key/Mexican
Lime-Leaf Tree (formerly Kaffir)
Palestinian Sweet Lime

Key Limes (aka Mexican Limes)

Palestinian Sweet Lime

Loganberries

Loquat

M

Macadamia

Medlar

Mulberry

Pakistani, Black, Bonsai'd Black, White Pakistani

Bonsai Patio Mulberry

Pakistani Mulberry

N

Nanking Cherry

Nectarines

Nopales

Pads in Buckets

Native Cat-Faced Spider on Prickly Pear Fruit (left)

Nopales pads

Prickly Pears, on Nopales Pads

O

Oaks

Coastal Live Oak

Olives

Oranges

Cara-Cara

Jaffa

Trovita

Valencia

P

Passion Fruit

Peach

Pears

Asian & European

Shinko Pears by full moon

Asian Pears

Bartlett pears (European)

Asian Pears on branches above local harvest basket

Pecans

Pepino Dulce

Persimmon

Chocolate, Coffee Cake, Firecrystal, Fuyu, Hachiya (regular & Giant), Saijo

Coffee Cake var (2 on right)

First Fuyu 2013

Saijo

Giant Hachiya

Plum

Pluot

Pine (Pinyon)

This native pine produces edible pine nuts.

Pomegranate

Here is photo of the 'Wonderful' pomegranate variety, in early summer. These will produce the dark red fruits we see in the markets. Unlike in more hot regions like the inland valleys of California or the Middle East, these will take several more months on the tree to ripen. We often don't harvest them until into December.

Here is a 'Sweet' variety on the hillside. The 'Sweet' requires less heat (& less time) to ripen then the "traditional" looking dark red varieties we often see at the store and farmers markets. The kernels are slightly reddish pink & have a less tangy flavor. They are an excellent variety for the more mild Bay Area.

There are also White Pomegranate varieties on the hill as well.

Pomelo

Upper left, largest citrus, Pomelo

Purple Tree Collards

A Perennial, delicious "green," the purple tree collards grow along tall "tree-like" stalks. They rarely go to seed & will last a long time. They can be propagated by cuttings.