Here is another picture.

and another one.

Still on the tree in Mass in October... Looks like my Arkansas Black

Arkansas Black. Lucky you. Don't eat it until next year, because right now it is really very very hard. But comes March it is the best apple there is.

will it last in my fridge that long?

It is also one of the few apples the cider folks at Vintage Virginia Apples use for a single variety hard cider. I wonder how long they let it sit before squeezing it. My little tree made just 9 apples this year.

Chuck

That would make me happy because I am thinking of hard cider making.

No, it will last in the fridge until May, or later if treated really well. Yes, it is decent for cider, but being good at a time of penury, I think it is a waste to juice it.

That's the first time I've ever seen a mislabeled tree be a good thing. Macintosh is a great apple but it's no Arkansas Black. Great looking apples!

Maybe I'll use them for apple pie at thanksgiving. I looked it up and it says good for pies.

Had to look up penury! HA!

I did too.

1: a cramping and oppressive lack of resources (as money); especially: severe poverty.

Wish Arkansas Black would ripen here in Colorado.

Here is a link that might be useful: pen·u·ry

you will all agree that May is a penurious month when it comes to fruits. anyhow, don't juice it. It is a very hard and very dry apple until ripe. even ripe it is on the dry side. AB are never ripe before January around here. In my storage I just lay AB at the bottom, Northern Spy at the top.

It is one of the 3 or 4 apples in my nursery to bare fruit very young with very little spray. It may be too hard for plum curculio. It has very low vigor due to its spurry nature and performs like a tree on a "one size down" in vigor rootstock- in other words M7 performs like 26. It often needs to be pruned to accentuate vigor.

This sounds like my tree. Very spurry, The trees next to it got plum not this one, seems to be compact growing. For a compact slow tree it grew a good amount of limbs out of the main trunk.

Arkansas Black for sure. They are also used in floral arrangements because they will keep for such a long time. Here is a photo of the Williamsburg Fan I mad for Christmas for Apple Works Orchard in Trafalgar, Indiana.

Nice looking apples John. Like everyone else...I too immediately looked up "penury"...lol

One fell off the tree from the Noreaster we had so I ate it. wasn't overwhelmed with the flavor. I'm not sure if this is another apple that is looked upon as an old time favorite, but really doesn't live up to it's reputation. I feel the same way about Brandwine tomatoes in the tomato world. A good tomato, but it doesn't make me go crazy over it. Of course I may have bad taste buds!

John,

You are not alone re. taste buds. I ate Arkansas Black at a PYO orchard two years ago. I remember that it was very hard and tasted "raw" (although they were ripe for picking). Maybe, it's a type of apple that tastes better after it is in storage for a while.

It's a beautiful, dark red apple.