Are roosters edible

Recently when I have had a few conversations with people, often they are self-confessed "foodies", and I have mentioned that we used to eat our extra roosters.  They are bewildered and ask if you can even eat rooster.  Then, before there is time to reply, they often smugly comment in an all knowing tone that they would never do such a thing as the meat would be tough and bad tasting. 

Of course you can eat rooster.  If you eat meat then you can eat most animals as they are made from meat.   Strangely these foodies have all eaten rooster many times, but they didn’t know they ate it as they simply don’t know where food comes from.

When you go to 'woollies' and pick up a roast chook, or go to a fancy restaurant and order an over priced meal containing chicken, if you are in Australia it is probably the meat of a young rooster about half of the time.

Currently, around half of any chicken meat you can buy in Australia is from roosters (albeit they are very young), but this is a relatively new thing.  Allow me to explain this further.

Blue australorp rooster - massive and calm

In the ‘old days’ most families had a small flock of dual purpose pure bred chickens.   The hens would lay eggs and extra roosters would be fed to the family.   Often you can't have many roosters as they will fight and hurt one another.  Roosters were usually killed reasonably young, about 4 to 6 months old.  When hens got too old to lay well, or the breeding rooster stopped doing his job well, they would be made into soup.  This was seen as normal, everyone who ate 'chicken' mostly ate roosters.

Slowly house block sizes got so small that a self-sustaining flock of chickens were no longer feasible for most families so people turned to shops to provide them with chicken meat and eggs.   This helped to detach people from their food, it lead to the extinction of many great breeds of chicken, and it lead to many breeds being bred for show and losing their usefulness, but that is a story for another time.

Silkie rooster ready for cooking

When I was young the egg farms mostly had pure bred birds, often leghorns as they lay more eggs on less feed than any other breed that I am aware of, but later they were often australorps as consumers wanted brown eggs instead of white.  They are lovely birds that do not do well confined in battery cages, and it is difficult to accurately tell the gender of hatchlings.  This lowers profits as more space and more food is used.   Often males and females were grown out for a few weeks to be certain before culling the males.   As money had been spent on feed the males were not wasted, the females would be placed in cages to lay eggs and the males would be grown out in separate sheds and slaughtered for meat.   Back then, almost all of the chicken meat you could buy was from young roosters as the females were used for eggs.  This was considered normal, everyone who ate 'chicken' mostly ate roosters.

In the 1960’s a first cross meat chicken was developed overseas.  It was fast growing and had a great feed conversion ratio.  As they are slaughtered before reaching maturity they were not kept for eggs, meaning both males and females would be killed and eaten.  These meat birds grow so fast that if they are not slaughtered at a young age they often experience all kinds of health issues.  I know a few people who tried to use them to breed from and they said that the roosters sometimes get so large that their legs would break under their own weight.  This cross breed struggled to be widely accepted in Australia in the early days as farming was less specialised back then and the egg industry had to do something with all the extra males.

Some cross bred chickens that we used to own

Around 1978 a French company developed a first cross laying hybrid where the females are red/brown and the males are white, they don’t eat a lot and laid well when confined in battery cages.  They are thin so don't have a lot of meat, but they lay well when confined and fed consistent rations.

This changed everything.  From then on it was simple to tell at hatching which were males and which were females as soon as they hatched.  Females could be kept for eggs while males could be buried alive, or fed through a wood chipper, or otherwise dispatched at day old in whatever way that is deemed acceptable by the RSPCA.  It took many years for these crossbred layers to become popular in Australia, now they dominate the egg industry and are probably the most popular back yard chicken.

The development of a sex linked layer also meant that a first cross meat breed could dominate the chicken broiler market.  This meat cross that was developed in the 1960’s before I was born now dominates the broiler industry in Australia today.  They grow fast and can reach marketable size (which is rather tiny) in about 6 to 8 weeks. 

Both males and females are now grown out and slaughtered for meat, which means about half of the chicken meat you can buy is now from a rooster.  Now this is seen as normal, everyone in Australia who eats chicken meat also eats roosters, but they usually don’t know it.

It will be a young rooster, but you can’t tell the difference in meat between that and a pullet, and I don’t know of anyone who even claims to be able to tell the difference.   If anyone would pretend to be able to tell it would be foodies, yet all the foodies I know have no idea that rooster is even edible!

Now, before someone petty tries to point out that young roosters are sometimes called 'cockerels' in some places - I know.  Cockerel is sometimes the name for a rooster under about one year of age.  This is a pedantic difference as it a regional dialect that differs depending on where you live.  Some places use the words cockerel and rooster interchangeably.  Regardless, a young rooster is still a rooster.  If someone is asking if roosters are edible they are always referring to young roosters.  Old roosters make a decent soup, just like an old hen makes a decent soup, so they are still edible.

The answer remains the same: If you eat meat, then yes you can eat a rooster.

Some other poultry terms that appear to confuse the foodies I know:

Capon
A 'capon' is a young rooster that has been castrated.  Roosters are very rarely castrated in Australia so you will not find these in many places.

Spatchcock
A 'spatchcock' is just a bird (normally a young pullet or rooster but sometimes various game birds) that has been splayed open for grilling.

Squab
A 'squab' is a young pigeon.  They are normally under 4 weeks of age.

If I think of any other terms that are confusing I will try to list them here.

Bee Forage Map

A while ago I found a bee forage map.  You can drag it to your address, change between miles and kilometers, zoom in and out, change between map or satellite view, and it shows how far bees may fly to forage.

I did not make this map, but I like it.  I will likely forget where it is, so I am linking to it here so I will be able to find it again: https://www.beepods.com/honey-bee-forage-map-radius-diameter-hive-coverage-plants-range.html

Honey bees will fly the shortest distance possible to collect nectar, pollen, water and propolis.  Where possible they will only fly a few meters from their hive and never leave your property.  In spring, when fruit trees are covered in flowers and the lawn is full of blooming dandelion and clover, I doubt my bees would need to even fly over my fence. 

At that time of year there are far more flowers than bees.  Much like it says in Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few".

Apple blossom is great in spring

Unfortunately, this changes pretty quickly and my bees need to travel further.  Most of the year the average property will lack enough resources to sustain a healthy hive, so foraging a lot further will be required.  When resources are low, if the hive is strong enough, the bees can fly 10 to 15 km or more.

People get caught up with numbers, but the closer they are to resources the better.  Many people say that most bee foraging occurs within 3 km of the hive.  This may be true, but if resources are closer they will collect them first.  So I look at the 1 km circle to see what is near my place. 

When I look at the bee forage map and zoom in to my place, within 1 km there is part of town with many established gardens, there are fruit trees, willow trees, poplar trees, acacia trees, honey locust trees, silk trees etc, there are many vegetable gardens, there are flowering hedges, there is open grazing land and crop land, there are overgrown yards filled with flowering weeds, there are roadside weeds, there are native flowers and trees, there are vineyards and canola fields (I am not happy about the last two, but there is nothing I can do about them).  All of this means there are a lot of floral resources near by for bees to collect. 

Within 1km of my place there is also a meadery, which has many bee hives.  There are also a reasonable number of backyard beekeepers within 1 km of my place.  Meaning there is a lot of competition for the resources that are here. 

At times there are far too many hives for the resources in the area, which leads to robbing.  I hate to think how much damage this is doing to the native bee population in the area.

I like this map, it showed me just how close I was to so many things both good and bad.  I was far closer than I had realised.

My vegetable garden has many resources, all within 30 m of the hive

Kumato tomato review

Have you ever heard about kumato tomatoes? For years I have heard how amazing these tomatoes taste and how very sweet they are. I read quotes such as “Kumato, the most delicious commercial tomato on the market”.

I was skeptical that a supermarket tomato could actually taste good, but so many reviews couldn’t be that far wrong – or could they?

Many brown tomatoes do have complex and rich taste, delicious varieties such as ‘black cherry’ and ‘Japanese black trifele’ immediately spring to mind, so I had high hopes for kumato. Others such as Black Russian are pretty bland, so kumato really could go either way. I cut into the kumato and it looked nice inside, which got my hopes up.

Kumato certainly look very good. If the marketing is to be believed I may even be able to buy a decent tomato from the supermarket rather than growing it myself. Imagine the garden space that would free up for other things. So I tried some to see for myself.

Kumato photo by Achim Raschka https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5550820

When I tasted it I was disappointed, it was mealy and insipid. It was much like any supermarket tomato except perhaps a little less sour and with far less flavour. That’s right, the kumato I ate had less flavour than a supermarket tomato.

I grow some varieties of very sweet tomatoes which I love, and I grow some very sour tomatoes which I adore, so am not new to sweet tomatoes or sour tomatoes. Unfortunately kumato was neither sweet nor sour, and it lacked any depth or complexity of taste.

Kumato wasn’t horrible, I didn’t want to spit it out, it didn’t make me gag or anything extreme like that, but it was not enjoyable. Salt helps bring out the flavour of some tomatoes, perhaps it needs salt. I added salt to see if that helped, but it didn’t. Then it was just salty and bland.

I grow a lot of varieties of tomato, some very old heirlooms, others are very new varieties, plus I dabble in breeding new tomato varieties, so my kids have tasted many dozens of different varieties of tomatoes in their short lives. They each have their favourites, and they tend to agree on the ones they don’t like. They know the brown tomatoes tend to have rich taste and were excited to try a kumato. When eating one each of them had a similar reaction, they were surprised at how bland kumato tomatoes are. How disappointing. Kids love tomatoes so I had hoped at least one of the kids would enjoy them, but they didn’t.

Japanese Black Trifele tomato - I love how these taste

I thought we may have gotten a bad batch, so I have tried kumato a few different times, and each time the result has been bland. I tried some that were firmer, and others that were far riper, each time the same result. We also tried ‘mini kumato’, which taste just as bland as kumato only smaller.

When tomatoes are put in the fridge they tend to lose flavour, some varieties are worse than others at this. All supermarkets tomatoes have been through cold storage before I get to buy them. Perhaps kumato could be decent tasting when ripe but responds very poorly to cold storage? I guess I will never know as I have no way to ever try a fresh one that has not been refrigerated. If that is the case this would be a dreadful trait for a commercially produced variety to have!

I don’t know why kumato have such great reviews, I suspect many people have never eaten a good tomato so have nothing to compare them against. I found them so bland I would prefer one of the unnamed red round supermarket tomatoes to a kumato. While those unnamed red round supermarket tomatoes certainly don’t taste great, they at least have more flavour than a kumato.

Black Russian tomato - sure looks pretty

After eating kumato several different times I read a description on Wikipedia which says they are “varying in flavor from almost no flavor to sweeter than typical tomatoes”. Kumato having almost no flavour sounds like my experiences with them and unfortunately it seems as though this is pretty common.

One of the biggest problems with growing food is that I have eaten good tasting food. If I had never eaten a good tomato perhaps I could convince myself that kumato taste ok simply because they lack sourness?

It looks like if I want a good tasting tomato I still have to grow it myself. I sell a few different types of tomato seeds, but kumato will never be on that list, if you are interested have a look at my for sale page.

The amazing V1-X

A few months ago my eldest son was given a toy for his birthday.  It was one of those things where you look after a fake pet.  It was a version of what I think they used to call a Tamagotchi or something like that.  I don't see the point, but he seemed to enjoy it and the other kids all wanted one themselves.

My second son desperately wanted one, but didn't want to wait until his birthday.  He asked for one, and we told him to wait until his birthday, he didn't want to miss out on the fun so he made his own.

He decided it needed a name, so he called it a "V1-X".

The amazing V1-X

V1X ready to play

He got a small box, put a toy car in it, and shook is left and right, and up and down.  Hours of fun!

I am not sure what the rules are, but he got high scores often.

I gave it a go, apparently I wasn't as good and I lost a life somehow?  I was told that my scores were pretty low.  It was really quite amusing playing with the V1-X and being told I lost a life.

Apparently if you get over a certain score, or something, you get an upgrade.  To be honest, I was never sure if an upgrade was a good thing or a bad thing.  It didn't really matter, my scores were never high enough to earn an upgrade.

An upgrade meant there were two toys to shake around in the box.  Again, I was never quite sure what the rules were.

V1-X upgrade

V1-X with various upgrades

Finally his birthday arrived and he got a real Tamagotchi thing.  He played with it a bit, but the novelty wore off pretty fast.  I assume it is still in his room somewhere but I haven't seen him use it in a long time.

I am not sure if he had more fun with the tamagotchi, or his V1-X.  He certainly got more use out of the V1-X and spent longer playing with it.

Sometimes my kids make me laugh.

Interesting strawberry leaves

I have been growing strawberries for years.  Normally the leaves all look much the same.  Sometimes they are larger or smaller, or more jagged or smoother, but really they all look much the same.  There are a few 'yellow leaf' forms, but to me they look like a sickly green.

Sometimes, my strawberries grow interesting leaves.  I have also been tinkering with breeding strawberries, sometimes a few interesting things come out of the crosses.  Crossing appears to introduce instability, which isn't always a bad thing.

I have had a few strawberry plants that sometimes throw up variegated leaves.  I had hoped this trait would continue and I would have a line of variegated plants, so far it is always restricted to a single leaf.  Hopefully in the future this variegation happens to a runner, then I may be able to grow variegated strawberry plants.

Variegated strawberry leaf

Variegated leaf

I have also had a few leaves with four or five leaflets instead of the usual three.  I really like this trait, but it does seem to be restricted to single leaves instead of entire plants.

Some plants tend to display this trait more often than others, it is more common in the wide crosses, but as yet I do not have any plants I consider to consistently grow four or five leaflets instead of the usual three.

Five leaflets instead of three.

Four leaflets instead of three

Five leaflets on the left, I don't know how many on the right

Five leaflets

If you have strawberries that grow interesting leaves and are willing to send me a plant or some seeds let me know.  I would be keen to grow them.

Currently strawberry seeds are still legal to import into Australia.  I know there is at least one variety of variegated strawberry around but don't know if it grows variegated from seed.

I do sell some strawberry plants through my for sale page.  Unfortunately at the moment I can't guarantee that any will ever grow interesting leaves like this.

Thyme progress

For some reason it is difficult to find many named varieties of thyme in Australia.  For some reason it is almost impossible to find any comparisons of thyme varieties.  Plant nurseries write such lovely things about their plants, but an honest side by side comparison is practically unheard of.

Last year I wrote a post comparing some thyme varieties to highlight the differences between them.  To expand on that, below are comparative pictures of the growth after about 6 months.  The pictures were taken at the beginning of spring after the plants had survived winter.

I wish I had planted them further apart, but I needed the space so they are cramped together.  The small pots contain cuttings of each variety.  You can see how each of the varieties of thyme grew compared to the others.  They are probably each double that size now and have started to flower.

Four varieties of thyme growing side by side.  It is pretty obvious that Jekka's thyme is larger and stronger than the other varieties.  It goes outside of the picture to the left somewhat.

Left to right: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Variegated lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme

Grow more dandelions

I like dandelions (Taraxacum officinale).  They are a perennial edible plant that are easy to grow.  I allow them to flower and set seed in my yard and encourage them as best I can.

Dandelions have many uses.  People eat the nutritious leaves and roots, they are high in vitamins minerals and inulin, nice coffee substitute can be made from the roots, wine can apparently be made from the flowers, animals relish all parts, bees (both native bees and honey bees) and other pollinators just adore them, they have medical uses, and they can be useful in composts.  Dandelions flower for much of the year where I live now, which is great for bees and other pollinators.

If you look closely you may notice that every photo on this page of dandelion flowers has a honey bee somewhere in the picture.  Bees really seem to love dandelions.

Dandelions have many uses, they grow reasonably fast, they are reasonably productive, they have no real problems with pests or diseases, and they can just grow in my lawn so do not use space that is needed for other vegetables.

I don’t see what is not to like and I like to encourage people to grow dandelions in the lawn.

Dandelion - you should grow more of them!

I have never understood why anyone would want to get rid of dandelions from the lawn or why dandelion poison exists.  The only problem I can think of is that they don’t survive if it is hot or dry.  That is no real reason to poison them though.

I have read permaculture sites and gardening books who claim that 'dandelions are a gift from nature that freely grow everywhere and thrive in damp as well as dry places'.  Even though I wish this were true, this is not the case.

Overwintering diploid potatoes

Last year I grew some diploid potatoes from true potato seed.  I really enjoyed it.  Every single plant produced different potatoes.  Each of them tasted far superior to anything you can get from the markets.  They were quite remarkable.

Unfortunately these diploid potatoes lack any real dormancy and start to grow not long after producing tubers, so it was unlikely that they would survive winter without help.

Being seed grown meant that each plant was unique, and I would love to keep the best new varieties alive.  Unfortunately I lack the time and space required to grow them via tissue culture, which means I had to think of a way to keep them alive through winter.

I attempted three methods of overwintering potatoes, putting them in the crisper of the fridge, leaving them in the garden, and putting them in a pot in a protected position.  Read more and I will explain what worked for me and what didn't.

Diploid potato grown from True Potato Seed

mulberry tree time from planting cuttings to fruiting

Have you ever wondered how long it takes for a white mulberry to go from a small cutting until it is large enough to fruit?  I have grown cuttings a few times so thought I would share my experiences and hope that it helps someone.

I have looked on the internet and found a nursery overseas that claims they sell 2 year old plants that should fruit in 2 - 3 years.  That seems overly long to me.  Judging how quickly I get things to fruit from cuttings or seed grown and how much longer they claim it takes for 2 year old plants to fruit I would have doubts over the quality of their plants and/or the accuracy of their claims.

Large mulberry cuttings can fruit that same year, but what about small cuttings?  Obviously it varies from plant to plant, some will fruit much faster or slower than others, and the climate will change things.

Here are some photos of a cutting that I took of a cutting from a white mulberry that is meant to be white fruiting (most white mulberries are dark fruited).  The cutting was around 10cm long and far thinner than a pencil.

My little cutting went from this tiny cutting just sprouting roots September 2017:

to this small ~60cm tall tree just before going dormant:

to this little tree emerging from dormancy in October 2018:

Unless something goes wrong I should find out in a month or two if it is white fruited or dark fruited. 

Mulberry breaking dormancy - note the catkin emerging

Almost every node that is producing leaves is also producing catkins, each of which should turn into mulberries.

It appears that this will be a productive tree once I plant it in the soil.  I am hoping that it will be white fruited, but even if it is dark fruited I think it will still be well worth growing.

 

I am waiting until the fruit ripens before planting this tree in a larger pot or in the soil.  I would hate for transplant stress to cause it to abort its fruit and have to wait another year.

I am assuming that some varieties of white mulberry take longer than this to fruit.  I assume that some varieties will be more productive and others less productive than this one.  Regardless, it appears that this is a productive and reasonably fast growing variety.  Going from a cutting to a fruiting tree in a year is pretty impressive.  I don't know of many fruit trees other than mulberry that can do this.

Skirret in Australia

Skirret (Sium Sisarum) is the ultimate perennial vegetable.  As far as I am concerned skirret is the perfect vegetable for organic gardeners, permaculture gardeners, people who are into increasing self-sufficiency, people who are increasing their food security, and people with fussy children.   That’s right, even fussy kids will eat skirret.

Skirret has a long history as a vegetable, it has been blessed with the highest recommendation and cursed with the lowest popularity of any of the root crops.  It grows wild across Asia, and has been well established across Europe.  Skirret may have made its first documented appearance in a 1322 list of seeds maintained by the gardener for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lambeth Palace, which included a penny's worth of skirret in a 1321 to 1322 inventory.  We don't know how long it was used as a vegetable prior to this, it is believed that skirret grew along damp riversides and ditches and was easily harvested for free, so didn't need to be bought and sold.  It is likely that skirret was grown and eaten long before this but simply not recorded.

People keep telling me that there is no skirret in Australia, but I grow skirret, I sell skirret, and eat skirret.  I have given skirret to some people who now also sell it.  So skirret is slowly becoming less rare in Australia.  Hopefully one day I will see skirret for sale at a farmer's market.

I adore skirret, I have grown it for a number of years now, have written a few posts on it to try and show other people how to grow it.  Skirret is the most delicious roast vegetable ever.  I have never eaten anything that even comes close to how great skirret tastes.  I like the taste normally, but frosts make it far sweeter.  I want to encourage more people to grow this remarkable vegetable.

Skirret next to 30 cm ruler for scale

Skirret next to 30 cm ruler for scale

Growing string of pearls succulent in water

I love string of pearls succulents (Senecio rowleyanus).  There is something special about their almost spherical leaves with little windows, and the crazy way they grow out of their pot and drape over the side that I love.

I started two tiny cuttings a while ago and have expanded my stock significantly since then by planting more cuttings.  They are a delightful and surprisingly simple plant to grow.

Unfortunately my two year old shares a similar fascination with these plants too.  He likes to rip off the longest strands and hide them around my yard or in boxes.  While I would prefer he didn't do this, and would prefer to have longer strands growing, whenever he pulls parts off I use them as cuttings to create more plants.

Small string of pearls plant

Normally when I take cuttings of string of pearls plant I remove the lower few leaves (its leaves are the round pearl things), then I stick that lower part in soil, and that is all.  In a few weeks the cutting has roots and the top is actively growing.  Very simple.

So far, even using cuttings that have been ripped off by the baby and hidden in the yard for a few weeks, I have had 100% strike rate.

String of Pearls cutting ready for planting

Recently I heard of another method to grow string of pearls cuttings.  Instead of putting the cutting in soil, you put it in a glass of water.  I root plenty of other cuttings in water like this but not succulents.  Being a succulent, and having such great success simply planting cuttings in soil, I had not even thought of rooting them in water.

I was intrigued if the cutting would grow or if it would simply rot.  Curiosity got the better of me so when the baby pulled off a strand I gave it a go.  I think that it is fun learning new things.

The water method of rooting string of pearl cuttings is much the same as the soil method I currently use.

I take the cutting and remove the lower few pearls as normal.  Then, instead of planting in soil, you place the lower section in water.  Common sense tells you that only the lower part goes in water, the top section with leaves remains above the water level just like most other cuttings.  To be honest, I can't think of any cutting that you would totally submerge other than fully aquatic plants.

I have an egg cup on the kitchen window sill where I grow a few cuttings.  A jar would probably work better, but the egg cup takes up so little space.  So I put the end of the cutting in the egg cup, and the top is draped out of the water towards the window.  As the egg cup is so small it has to be topped up with water each night which ensures less algae growth and more oxygen is in the water.

Strangely enough all went well.  In a couple of wees roots started to form and the cutting was ready to be planted in soil.

String of pearls cutting actually grew roots in water!

I expected it to rot, but it grew roots pretty fast

Not only did roots form, the tip started to grow longer.  This indicates that the plant is alive.  Towards the end the cutting started to put down more roots in search of soil.

Growing longer and forming more roots

At this stage the cutting was ready to be planted in soil.  If you grow string of pearls plants in water then this is the time to plant them in soil.  Once again curiosity got the best of me.  I started to wonder how long the string of pearls cutting could survive in nothing but water.

String of pearls is a succulent, and succulents are adapted to growing in dry places, growing a succulent in water feels strange.  It was worth giving this a go simply to learn more about this fascinating plant.

String of pearls roots getting longer

String of pearls water roots

Surprisingly enough all has gone well so far.  The roots have gotten pretty long.  The plant is growing longer and seems reasonably healthy.

So far the only issue is lack of light as I am growing it in the kitchen where it is bright but there is little to no direct light.

Internodes are a bit long as the light levels are too low

I figure sooner or later my string or pearls cutting growing in a glass of water will start to rot.  When that happens I will cut off the rotting section and plant the rest in soil so it can root and grow normally.  Hopefully that works so I have not lost anything in trying this.  It is fascinating though.  I wonder how long it can actually survive in water like this.

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Update from April 2019: I started the string of pearls cutting from the pictures in water back in late August 2018.  It is now April and it is still going strong.  Who would have thought!  It is not as large as ones of the same age that I grew in soil but still looks healthy.  So far its only issue is not getting enough sunlight because I have had it growing on the kitchen window.

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Update March 2021: my string of pearls cutting in nothing but water died after two and a half years.  

It fell out of the water and I didn't put it back in for a few weeks.  The stem got bruised/broken from having something heavy placed on it, making the roots die.  I tried to put it back in water in hopes the roots would grow again, but they didn't, I think it had been out of water and crushed for too long.  Had I noticed earlier I think it would have survived,

I think this would have kept growing forever if the plant had more sunlight and it didn't fall out of the water.  

This cutting didn't rot, it never flowered but it kept growing longer and branching.  It lasted two and a half years in nothing but water!

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If you want to grow a string of pearls plant I sell string of pearls cuttings as well as small string of pearls plants through my for sale page.  At this stage I only have the regular green variety, I plan to have the large variety and the variegated string of pearls plant for sale day too.

Red Fleshed Huonville Crab Apples

When we lived on acreage we had many apple trees.  We had three mixed orchards, each orchard had some apples.  We had some old heritage apples, we had over 50 espaliered apples consisting of four newer apple varieties.  We also had a few other things such as medlar.

Now we live in town we have far fewer fruit trees.  One I particularly like is the Huonville Crab Apple.  It is believed to be the cross between a domestic apple and a crab apple.  It grows small edible apples and is pretty enough to belong in an ornamental flower garden!  The apples are red fleshed, which is very rare in Australia, but it has other traits that I also like.

The bark of the Huonville Crabapple is a lovely dark colour.

Huonville Crab the branches are a rich dark colour

Domestic apples the branches are often more green

During the growing season the Huonville Crab apple leaves are a beautiful purple colour.  Most types of apple leaves are varying shades of green.

Huonville crab apple leaves

Most apple leaves are green

Huonville Crabapple flowers are a dark pink.  They are incredibly beautiful.  Before they have opened they look like tiny roses.  Most domestic apples are a pretty light pink/white when they flower.  While I like the look of both, and am glad to be growing both, I prefer the look of the darker Huonville crab apple flowers.

Huonville crab apple flowers look like roses before they open

Huonville crab apple flowers before they opened

Huonville crab apple flowers are beautiful

Huonville crab apple flowers

Most other apple flowers are pink and white and lovely

Cripps Pink apple blossom almost ready to open

The flesh of Huonville crab apple is red.  I will try to remember to take some pictures of them this year and put it up in another post.  Even the sap of the Huonville crab apple is purple.

I am quite taken by this tree.  The dark trunk, the purple leaves, and the stunning flowers look amazing together.  The dark red apples with red flesh are great, I think they would be better if the apples were just a little bit larger.