Bardsey
This amazing apple comes from the windswept Bardsey Island off the coast of Wales. The tree grows in an area right next to a house where it is protected from sea winds and salt spray. The tree flowers early in the season; the fruit is pink striped over a yellow base and is picked in Wales in late September and stored until November. These characteristics make it a candidate to do well in maritime climates in the U.S. Bardsey Island has long been associated with religious activity. Pre-Roman Celts visited the Island to pray and often to die on this most western isle, and during early Christian times Bardsey was a place of pilgrimage. Three trips to Bardsey Island were said to equal a pilgrimage to Rome. Anybody buried on Bardsey was said to be guaranteed eternal salvation. Because of this, some people today think the Bardsey Apple could be connected to the mystical power of the island. The fruit appears to be scab free while growing in a very scabby orchard in North Wales.
Brown Russet
Grow a piece of history! Originating in England before 1567, this tasty, heavily russetted apple, also known as Royal Russet or Leather Coat, is highly resistant to both scab and mildew and a great choice for the organic grower. A late-ripening dessert apple, the flavor is sharp, tart and juicy when first picked, making a great addition to cider, applesauce and pies, and will continue to mellow and sweeten off the tree through the winter for fresh eating. The medium-sized round fruit has a green-yellow background mostly covered with brown russeting; they look like golden orbs hanging on the tree as Halloween approaches! Fun fact: the reference to Leathercoat fruit in Shakespeare’s play Henry IV is to heavily russetted apples. Brown Russet, (or Royal Russet as it was known then), was among the most popular at the time. The tree is triploid, it flowers with mid-season varieties, and needs a pollinator (although it will not return the favor). A productive, vigorous, upright grower.
Centennial Crab
The cutest, sweetest little hybrid crabapple. An upright, rounded tree, Centennial Crab is extremely cold hardy–up to zone 3. This crab is an easy tree to grow; it is scab resistant and somewhat fireblight resistant. The mid-season bloom is white. The fruit is medium to large, about two inches in diameter, and slightly elongated. The skin is bright red mottled over orange, and the flesh is white, sweet, and mildly acidic. This is a perfect
little snacking apple, and it is also used for baking and sauces. Centennial was developed in 1957 at the University of Minnesota in Excelsior.
Cherry Cox
Put this Cherry on top – of your list of apple trees! A medium-size, round, deep red apple that is consistently productive and has excellent flavor. From Denmark, it is a sport of the fabled Cox’s Orange Pippin. More highly-colored than the original COP, but still has that complex flavor and dense texture that makes its parent so popular. It is easy to grow, somewhat disease resistant and ripens late, in early October here in the PNW. The sturdy tree has a compact, spreading growth habit. It blooms early-mid season, bloom category 2, pollinizing other apples in categories 1-3.
Duchess of Oldenburg
Originally the Duchess of Oldenburg apple tree was planted extensively wherever growers required extreme hardiness from the cold winter. The Duchess of Oldenburg apple tree “kept up the hope of prairie orchardists in times of great discouragement,” according to The Apples of New York, Volume II, by S. A. Beach (J. B. Lyon Co., 1905). The apple is medium to large; color pale yellow covered with splashes and stripes of pinkish red. Duchess of Oldenburg flesh is yellow, firm, crisp and juicy. A highly aromatic apple, with excellent culinary qualities. Duchess of Oldenburg apples are one of the best pie apples for coldest climates. Duchess of Oldenburg is a very attractive early-season apple, originating from Russia in the mid to late 17th century. It is primarily used as a cooking apple. Although never really a commercial variety, it was quite widely grown across northern Europe in the 19th century. It was imported to the USA in 1835 by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and its excellent cold hardiness made it a popular variety in the northern states. From the 1920s Duchess of Oldenburg became an early mainstay of the University of Minnesota’s (UMN) long-running and well-respected cold-hardy apple breeding program. The true extent of its role was not apparent because of errors in written records of parentage, but recent DNA testing by Luby, Howard, Tillman and Bedford at UMN, found that Duchess of Oldenburg was present in the ancestry of almost every apple variety ever developed at UMN. Of local interest they ripen by late July or early august and are a summer treat while waiting for the more popular and tastier apple of fall.
Hudson’s Golden Gem
Hudson’s Golden Gem apple is perhaps the finest eating russet with crisp, breaking, sugary flesh and a distinct nutty flavor that resembles the Bosc pear. Hudson’s Golden Gem apple tree was discovered among a dense group of bushes and trees in Oregon. Once discovered it was quickly introduced in 1931 by the Hudson Wholesale Nurseries. The Hudson’s Golden Gem apple is conical, elongated, yellow russet. Flesh is white to cream to pale yellow.
Idared
An outstanding late-season storage apple. Also known as Ida Red. Idared is an early bloomer and late ripener; in Apples for the 21st Century, Manhart notes that it is the primary pollinator for Gravenstein in Oregon. The tree is smallish, precocious, and a reliable cropper, with an open, upright-spreading habit. A cross of Jonathan and Wagener, Idared looks much like Jonathan, but is somewhat larger. The apple is slightly flat and ribbed, and colored almost solid red over a greenish background. The flesh is crisp, and the flavor (when fully ripened) is rich and complex. This highly aromatic apple is one of the best keepers available; it will hold its flavor and texture in regular refrigeration for six months! Idared is a great baking and sauce apple, and it is also a useful apple for adding some late-season acidity to cider blends. It is used to add a layer of “sweet, ripe, red apple aromas” to the blend. Idared was developed at the Idaho Experiment Station. It was selected in 1935 and released in 1942.
Johnny Appleseed
In the 1830’s, thousands of apple trees were planted in Ohio by one John Chapman, who earned the nickname Johnny Appleseed for his work. Nearly two centuries later, it is extremely rare to find a tree documented to be a graft from one of Johnny’s trees, but Raintree acquired one. It was tracked down by Scott Skogerboe, who found an old newspaper article that told of an Ohio homestead where Johnny Appleseed had planted a tree. Early in the 20th century, a student who visited the homestead took a cutting,
grafted a new tree and planted it in his family’s yard. The child who planted the grafted tree, now elderly, retired from the same school where Scott found the ancient tree. Since apples from Chapman’s trees were used by settlers mostly for making hard cider, their fresh eating quality wasn’t the highest priority. Nevertheless, the history of this tree makes it a wonderful living legend.
Keepsake
Keepsake is unattractive, irregularly shaped, 2.25 to 2.75 inch diameter, 90% red fruit, fine grained, hard, very crisp, juicy light yellow flesh, strongly aromatic flavor. The best, and rather remarkable thing that can be said of Keepsake is that it is the parent of Honey Crisp, one of the most popular apples in the US.
Kingston Black
Kingston Black is a small dark red apple, formerly grown in the West Country cider-producing regions of England, and now a popular variety amongst cider enthusiasts. However it is not the easiest of varieties to grow, generally considered a poor cropper and somewhat prone to disease. English cider is traditionally produced using blends of Sweet, Bittersweet, Sharp, and Bittersharp juice – Kingston Black produces one of the best bittersharp juices. Hogg, writing at the end of the 19th century refers to Kingston Black as “the most valuable cider apple“, and Kingston Black is widely believed to have one of the best-flavored juices. It is worth noting that the word “cider” has quite different meanings in the UK and North America. In North America fresh apple juice is known as “cider”, whereas in England “cider” means fermented apple juice – which is known as “hard cider” in the USA. Thus most traditional English “cider” apples cannot be eaten fresh, nor is their juice necessarily palat,able when freshly pressed – they are grown solely for the production of hard cider.
Lemon Pippin
Lemon Pippin (also known as Kirke’s Lemon Pippin; Quince; Englischcr Winterquiitenapfel). The fruit is medium sized, three inches and a quarter long, by two and a half broad; oval, with a large fleshy elongation covering the stalk, which gives it the form of a lemon. Skin, pale yellow, tinged with green, changing to a lemon yellow as it attains maturity, strewed with russet freckles, and patches of thin delicate russet. Eye, small, and partially open, with short segments, and set in an irregular basin, which is frequently higher on one side than the other. Stamens, median; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, short, entirely covered with the fleshy elongation of the fruit. Flesh, firm, crisp, and briskly flavored. Core, very small, and occupying very little space in the fruit. Cells,
obovate; axile. A very good apple, either for culinary or dessert use; it is in season from October to April, and is perhaps the most characteristic apple we have, being sometimes so much like a lemon as at first sight to be taken for that fruit. Forsyth says it is excellent for drying. The tree does not attain a large size, but is healthy, hardy, and a good bearer. It is uncertain at what period the Lemon Pippin was first brought into notice. Rogers calls it the “Quince Apple,” and, if it is what has always been known under that name, it must be of considerable antiquity, being mentioned by Rea, Worlidge, Ray, and almost all the early writers; but the first instance wherein we find it called Lemon Pippin is in Ellis’s “Modern Husbandman,” 1744, where he says it is “esteemed so good an apple for all uses, that many plant this tree preferable to all others.”
Oliver
In the early 1800’s, John Oliver of Washington County, Arkansas raised an apple tree on his farm that produced a striking red apple with large, distinctive dots, or lenticels, over the skin’s surface. It became a very popular local variety and was widely grown in the Ozarks of Arkansas. In 1895, Stark Bro’s Nursery sold this apple under the trademarked name, Senator. Valued for its size and high quality, it was especially noted for its long keeping abilities. Fruit size is medium to large with thick, smooth, glossy yellow skin overlaid with rich-red and streaks of darker red. The surface is punctuated with large, conspicuous, light-colored dots. The yellowish flesh is fine-grained and juicy and often stained with red. Ripens October to November and is an excellent keeper. Comments from a grower: “I have enjoyed a few of this variety for the past several years; this year, I finally have a dozen or so (it is a small graft) and am more fully appreciating it. It is a very tasty apple, in the Northern Spy school of taste (hard to describe if you have not had it – more grape-like perhaps). I particularly like it because I have lots of rotting problems on the Northern Spy types and this guy does not rot at all. I think I may replace my Wagener tree with this, Wagener has a similar taste but it rots a lot. They do not like being picked early, and they do color up early so you need to watch it. They would also prefer some time in the cellar. They are very tasty apples, super productive, and bulletproof. What’s not to like?”
Opalescent
A handsome, antique variety from Michigan. Also known as Hudson’s Pride of Michigan. The tree is vigorous, upright-spreading, productive, and hardy. It is susceptible to fireblight. Opalescent is a very large apple; it is often compared to Twenty Ounce with the notable difference being that Opalescent is washed with a brilliant red over a yellow background. The apple is slightly ribbed and sometimes lopsided. The crimson exterior is dotted with small, prominent lenticels and tends to be waxy, and the flesh is creamy, crisp, and subacid to sweet. Tasters find floral and tropical notes, sometimes a hint of
strawberries. In its day, this was considered one of the best culinary apples available. It stores well for about two months. George Hudson in Hastings, Michigan first discovered Opalescent in the 1880s growing as a seedling near some oak stumps he was digging out. Hudson eventually submitted specimens of the apple to the USDA, and the name Hastings (after the town it was found) was chosen for the new variety. Before it was made public, however, Dayton Star Nurseries introduced the variety under the name Opalescent in 1899.
Pink Pearl
The Pink Pearl apple tree is a unique apple with distinctive pink flesh beneath translucent, pearly yellow skin, which sometimes also bears a light pink blush. The Pink Pearl apple tree was introduced in 1944 by the renowned California plant breeder Albert Etter. Not simply just a novelty, but a great tasting apple with firm flesh. Pink Pearl apples are tart to sweet-tart, depending on time of harvest. Pink Pearl apples are wonderful for baking, especially in open-topped tarts or in sauces where their pink color can really shine. They are also a good choice for eating fresh, whether alone or as part of a salad. Pink Pearl are harvested in late summer and don’t last long in storage, so you’ll need to be quick to enjoy this special summer apple. The blooms are very attractive. One of our most popular varieties.
Porter
Porter originated on the farm of the Reverend Samuel Porter (1709-1758) in Sherborn Mass. The town was initially spelled Sherburne in 1674, probably after Henry Sherburne, who served as Associate Judge of the Court at Strawberry Bank from 1651–52. The spelling was changed to “Sherborn” in 1852. As the story goes, the magnificently beautiful, yellow apple only became popular after Porter’s death when others, including a Mr. Sauger–or Sanger–recognized its value and popularized the apple, naming it after the Reverend Porter. Sauger could possibly be Porter’s contemporary, Capt. Samuel Sanger (1735-1822) or one of Samuel Sanger’s sons, Samuel (1764-1851), Calvin (1768-1835) or Joseph (1791-1867) all of whom lived in Sherburne. In any event, one of these Sangers would have been the right age to have become enamored with Samuel Porter’s apple. The assessment was correct. Porter became extremely popular throughout much of New England, well up into central Maine. The first record of Porter trees in the state is 1828. By 1863 it was the most popular fall apple in Maine. We still find old Porter trees every year. The fruit resembles Golden Delicious in shape and coloring but not in flavor or use. It is an excellent late summer-early fall all-purpose cooking apple. Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “Who would make jelly of any other apple, that had the Porter?” In 1896 Fanny Farmer wrote about canning apples, “Wipe, quarter, core, and pare Porter apples, then weigh. Make a syrup by boiling for ten minutes one-third their weight in sugar with water, allowing two and one-half cups to each pound of sugar. Cook apples in syrup until soft, doing a few at a time. Fill jars, following Directions for Canning.” Henry Sanders wrote in his recollections of a farm boy, “In the old orchard [in Livermore, Maine] was a Porter tree, with a white, sour apple shaped like a pig’s nose. It was a general purpose apple, but not a great favorite.” Different strokes for different folks?
Ramsdell Sweet
The Ramsdell Sweet apple tree was first described in 1845 under the name Ramsdell Sweeting, but in 1862 it was officially cataloged as the Ramsdell Sweet. A very sweet apple of good size. Its high quality flesh is tinged with yellow and is fine, firm, tender, juicy and of course, sweet. This is a great dessert apple. The Ramsdell Sweet apple is smooth yellow skin overspread with an attractive crimson red. Early bearing and fairly vigorous.
Rhode Island Greening
Rhode Island Greening is a well-known American heirloom apple variety, dating back to the 17th century. That makes it a very old apple, indeed there are not many European apples that can be traced back as far as Rhode Island Greening. Perhaps, surprisingly, Rhode Island Greening is not a rare antique variety grown by enthusiasts as a historical curiosity, as its vintage might suggest. Quite the opposite – it appears to have been a commercial variety from the outset and even today is still grown commercially in the north-eastern USA. The main reason for this enduring success is that Rhode Island Greening is the definitive apple for American apple pie. It is one of those apples (like the English Bramley) that really benefits from cooking to bring out the full richness and sweetness of flavor. Whilst it can be eaten fresh after a period in storage, it is essentially a hard and uncompromising apple, far better in the kitchen. Whereas the English like their culinary apples to dissolve into a puree or sauce, Rhode Island Greening – like most of the popular American cooking apples – tends to keep its shape when cooked. Rhode Island Greening is a triploid apple variety – with three sets of chromosomes rather than the usual two sets (diploid). The triploid form is the one most commonly planted and cannot pollinate other apple varieties. It takes longer than most apple varieties to come into bearing, but then goes on to become a relatively large tree with the potential to be very long-lived.
Tolman Sweet
Tolman Sweet is one of America’s oldest varieties. No one knows when and where it originated, but it may have been a cross between Sweet Greening and Old Russet that was found growing in Dorchester, MA well before 1700. Tolman Sweet is another of those names with lots of variations: Talman Sweet, Tomey Sweet, Tom Sweet, and Taulman Sweet are a few. Called a “sweet” apple because it has practically no acid in it at all. The tree is incredibly rugged and long-lived, which may explain why it remained popular for centuries and is still fairly common in old central and southern Maine orchards today. Two hundred years ago it was often used as rootstock for other grafted varieties. Eaten fresh, Tolman Sweet may have one the most recognizable flavors of any apple; an interesting and peculiar sweet taste that once tried is not forgotten—though some like it and some don’t! The moderately juicy, greenish-yellow fruit is often marked by a “suture” line running from top to bottom and sometimes has a bit of a brownish blush outlined with red. When grown in full sun, the coloring is beautiful. Tolman is an all-purpose fruit, used traditionally for cooking, dessert and even animal fodder. One old source called it popular for “pickling, boiling and baking.” We recommend it for a sweet apple sauce. The rich, creamy sauce cooks slowly, and the skin mostly breaks up and disappears. Recently we’ve been told that, despite its relatively small size, it makes a superior baked apple when cored and stuffed with spices. In 1849, S.W. Cole recommended baked sweet apples and milk as an important medicine: “We know a gentleman who, 10 years ago, was in a hopeless state of consumption, and by long and exclusive use of this dish, and a little bread for nutriment, and lime-water for a condiment, he was cured. …This diet would cure thousands suffering from inflammatory diseases, caused by high, rich, constipating food.” We hope you don’t have to try this, but it does sound a great deal tastier than most medicines.
Williams
The original Lady Williams (also known as simply Williams) apple tree is thought to be a chance seedling from a Granny Smith apple. This original tree still stands today next to the Western Australia home it originally sprung. This rugged tree withstood much adversity before bearing its first fruit from frustrated dogs to ax wielding kids. Today the Lady Williams apple tree is best known as a footnote to Pink Lady apple, the offspring of the Lady Williams apple tree. The other parent variety is thought to be Jonathan apple tree or Rokewood apple varieties. Lady Williams apples are medium sized, deep dark red colored apple. It’s yellow fleshed with firm, crisp and juicy flesh. It has a wonderfully balanced sugar-acid balance. Tart when harvested prematurely but mellows when left on the tree into early winter. Stores great if picked before dormancy. Nice selection for low chill locations.
Willow Twig
Willow Twig has the synonyms James River, James River Willow, Willow, Willow Leaf, and some claim the variety, Missing Link, is the same variety as Willow Twig. The origin is uncertain, but there is an 1845 catalog reference, and Warder referred to it in 1867 as a Virginia fruit. The James River name lends some support. It is medium to large in size, and roundish-oblate to conical in shape; the greenish-yellow skin is flushed and mottled red, streaked with carmine and dotted with russet. The greenish-yellow flesh is coarse but very firm and crisp with a subacid flavor. Moderately vigorous, the branches of the tree are slender and drooping, giving the variety the Willow Twig name. The oval, medium-sized leaves are medium to light-green in color, folded, and reflexed. The serrations are sharp, small and regular, and the bark is a yellowish color. Willow Twig is somewhat susceptible to the major apple diseases, and it is difficult to grow in the nursery. An all-purpose apple and excellent keeper for eating and culinary purposes, it ripens in October.
Wynooche
Wynooche Early was a numbered selection NY 55140-9 introduced in about 1967 from New York Fruit Testing that was field tested around the nation. New York never named it. It was grown in Montesano in Southwest Washington at the mouth of the Wynooche river by H. Hughes who promoted it as a variety to grow in that wet climate. It is a red over yellow early season scab immune sweet/tart apple ripe in mid-August that has become a favorite in Western Washington.
Zabergau Reinette
The shape and size of this unusual and pretty apple varies considerably, but all are a cheerful spring green dominated by copper-colored russet so metallic it shimmers, no place more so than in the many large lenticels. They are quite large and very oblate. This apple also has a slight blush, which is typical. Zabergau is smaller and more classically shaped. It also is a little ribbed and has a faint grassy aroma. They are also rock hard in early October. Inside, fine-grained white flesh tinted green is crisp and moderately dense, with both crunch and chew. Zabergau’s flavors are tentative and delicate, balanced and with the merest hints of kiwi and lime. There is a little astringent feel during the chew, too.
