That is one funky looking apple! I planted one last year. Hope to get some in a couple more years.

They have a crisp texture and a sweet/acid flavor. Amazing apple. They stand up well to eating fresh and pies or cobblers. I usually make a huge bunch of pie filling, freeze it in the shape of the crusts, drop them in, and apple pie!!

Suzi

What you saw in that photo was day one of harvest. It will continue for many more weeks. The birds only peck if the apples go red, but if they do, mush.

Suzi

Lucky you! Daily, I find Anna apples on the ground from where the squirrels have dropped them and the other apples have worms :-( I don't spray, and haven't gotten into trapping. .

Johnthecook, when Anna's aren't cross-pollinated, they appear oblong like that. When cross-pollinated with a variety like Golden Dorsett or Tropic Sweet, they tend to have a more regular appearance.

Then mine will look like that cause I have neither apple. It will make no difference too me as long as they taste good. The tree was only like 12 bucks at tractor supply last year inside the building and quite small with very little root structure. So I'm happy that it survived a tough winter and looks healthy with a little growth.

Interesting about that funky shape caused by self polination. We are happy with our funky apples, so we put another Anna apple in about 1 acre away (protection from fire blight) from the current one. The original one is old, and shows signs of fire blight, but we have done our best to remove all that wood, and it seems to have recovered well.

There was a neglected 4 variety apple here when we bought this place, but it had serious fire blight and had to be removed.

We haven't sprayed, but so far no worms.

I just bought some lard. Lard makes the best pie crusts, and I plan to melt it in 1/2 cups, pour it on parchment, freeze it hard, break it up for easy cutting into the flour. A lard crust is the one that melts in your mouth. Nothing tough about it.

Lard crusts are good, but I fine that coconut oil is even better. Adds some taste.

In really warm climates, you may need to cool the coconut oil to get it solid before you use it.