Which apples are good ones?

[blackberrycrumb]

Not sure if I've posted this in the right place, but I've just been blackberry picking with my DC, we have so many bushes around our area!
Whilst on our walk I noticed lots of apple trees out and about aswell, is there a way to know which trees have nice apples? Or is it just trial and error?

Trial and error really. Or look which apples other people are favouring! Some of the nicest apples are the ugliest.

You know how to check if an apple is ready? Lift it up whist on the tree and if it comes away, it's ripe. But conversely you can cook a slightly underripe eating apple and it will be fine. Well, you can cook any apple of course.

Jealous that you seem to have lots of apple trees about, that's unusual!

Are you sure they're not crab apples (much smaller than eating apples, maybe an inch to an inch and a half diameter)? These are too sour to eat by themselves, but you can use to make crabapple jelly etc. Theoretically you could cook with them too (crumble etc with some sugar added to the apples) but the skins are tough and I personally can't be arsed to peel such small apples!

If they are eating apples, best way to see if they taste nice is to taste them! If you gently twist one and it comes off the tree easily, it's ripe. Give it a bite and see if it's good!

The law that says you can pick “flowers, fruit, foliage and fungi” applies only to wild plants, not to cultivated ones, so make sure your apples are wild. Overhanging the street from someone’s garden doesn’t count

Oh it sounds like they may be crab apples then! We have lots in my area!
And definitely not in someone's garden!

Thank you for the tips!