Yes, there are many excellent eating apples that can be grown on the prairies and more varieties constantly coming onto the market. I sometimes attend the Devonian Gardens fruit tasting event and have been amazed with some of the local grown apples often tasting much better than anything store bought.

Konrad and others will be able to advise you on the best of the best for growing in Edmonton.

Terrance

Yes, for me, I like the Norkent for eating, also have Norda, but to me they're the same. It's one of the later apples and stay crisp for several month in the fridge.
Some people can grow honey crisp in the city, I think the season for these is sometimes not long enough...last fall would have worked out fine I would think.

A good early apple is Norland, picked ripe from the tree it is lovely, doesn't store long when picked ripe. Slightly under ripe when seeds still white, about 8 day's before ripe they can store 2 month.

Another note, when I say ripe from the tree I mean,.. when they just turn red cheeks, [when in the sun] and seeds just turn to brown.
2 or 3 day's longer on tree, the apple can be soft already.

Carrol is nice too,.. good for cooking, a bit more tangy with more acid, crisp but don't store long.

Devonian Botanic Garden, DBG Fruit Growers Scionwood and Seed Exchange will be held in April 21, 2012 from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm.
There you could pick up scion wood, usually for $2.00 a stick.

Yes, as Terrance mentioned, in Sept. you can taste them in the garden,... might be preferred, everyone's taste buds are different.

Terrance & Konrad, thank you for your kind reply. Konrad answered the question before I ask, regarding the scion and seed exchange at DBG. I definitely will attend the event. Thank you again!

Here in the link from our annual fruit festival, about 13 plates are all mine, most with hail damage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Devonian Garden Fruit Grower Festival, Sept 2011

Konrad,
Thank you for those photos. I am truly surprised by the huge variety of apples you can grow here. They look really delicious.

we have a september ruby and it is perfect size eating and baking apples here in southern alberta

Yes, have lots of these, [see picture in link, click rigth]... it also makes good juice, but by Christmas this one is soft. My best cooking apple is Collet, a better keeping apple.

Konrad...will they also tell you how to graft? I wud love try but have never even seen it done. My neighbour did but did not know what he was doing and it did not work.Looking forward to it.

Not really,....but if somebody want's to know how it's done I can show you.
Everybody seems to have their own favored method, most of my
graft's are called bark graft,...over the years I have modified it to
my liking, [link].

If your'e interested in this technique, exercise on the cut's to get fast and precise, ....the faster the better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Konrad's modified bark grafting

I agree with the recommendations above. If you like an eating apple that is more sweet than tart, you might want to consider Prairie Magic. I ripened some of those for the first time last fall, and they were fantastic as well.

I went to the DBG Fruit Growers Scionwood and Seed Exchange today. Well, due to kids' extracurricular activities, I did not get there until 2:20pm. Only one fruit grower was still there but I picked up Norkent and some cherry plum scionwoods. It will be fun to try out those this year.
I also mark down the September 16 for the fall fruit tasting event on my calender. It will be great to know more about what we can grow here.

Yeah...most left about this time, good thing you got Norkent, so far the best eating apple IMO.