As the apples mature, we switch from earlier to later varieties that are available. This coming weekend we will have the Freedom variety available for pick-your-own, rather than the earlier Liberty. Freedom is another scab-resistant Macoun relative, good for pick-your-own since it doesn't require fungicides to reliably have good apples. Freedoms do not appear to have the pest damage the Libertys did - we will assess this for sure just before the weekend when we pick our cider apples, but at this point we expect the quality of these apples to be good. Still organic, etc. so not grocery-store perfect, but much better for you!
What are Freedoms like? A good sweet-acid balance, crisp and super-red. They will be early in their season this weekend, so more acid this coming week than in later weeks, when the sugars will take over the flavor. They work well for fresh eating, baking and saucing.
As for the cider, the super-ripe Libertys will provide a lot of sweet aromatic juice at this point in their season. A good time for thinking about hard cider! Since you know what happens to all that sugar when the yeast get busy... We should have a good cider blend with apples at different points in their season balancing sweet, tart, and aromatic.