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  • From: "Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Best keeping apples?
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 12:12:17 -0500

Title: Message

Jim, your request for info on long-keeping apples led me to do some on-line research.  This is what I found: Braeburn and Fuji are said to store well in common storage for as long as 8 months. Other apples that are supposed to store well in common storage for a long time are Ben Davis, Blacktwig (Paragon), Blue Pearmain, Dr. Mathews, Empire, Golden Russet, Golden Supreme, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Hunt Russet, Idared, Lady, Limbertwig, Keepsake, Melrose, Newtown Pippin (Yellow Newtown, Albemarle Pippin), Rome Beauty, and Roxbury Russet.

Another long keeper, according to a couple of growers, is 'Suncrisp'. One nursery gives this description: Suncrisp USPP 11,071 Very pretty red blush over yellow. Ripens 1 week after Golden with excellent flavor. Stores up to 6 months. Need thinning, can become biennial.

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Here's some interesting info about long-keeping Southern apples from Big Horse Creek Farm (http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/descriptions4.htm):

Scott's Winter (Scott's Red Winter, Wilcox’s Winter) - Scott's Winter originated in 1864 on the Scott farm of Newport, Vermont….An aromatic apple ripening November to December and keeping until April.

Sparger (Sparger Smokehouse) - This is an excellent keeping apple of North Carolina origin...Ripens in October and is a superb keeper.

Terry Winter (Terry, Winter Terry) - An excellent old southern apple noted for its long-keeping abilities….Ripens November and is an excellent keeper.

Yates (Yates Winter, Red Warrior) - Yates originated with Matthew Yates of Fayette County, Georgia, around 1844. Long a popular Southern favorite prized for its fine flavor and long keeping qualities....Ripens in October and keeps very well until April.

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Here's an item from Vintage Virginia Apples (http://www.vintagevirginiaapples.com/apples/pilot.htm ) about 'Pilot', a long-keeping cultivar: "PILOT is also called Virginia Pilot, and documents in the USDA library files in Beltsville, Maryland, indicate that it originated on the John Lobban (or Lobbin) farm, Rockfish Township, Nelson County, Virginia, at the foot of Pilot Mountain, as a seedling about 1831….A local story from the owner of the property where the Pilot originated tells that it was brought from England and valued for its great keeping quality….Pilot stores exceptionally well, and the USDA reported in 1908 that some growers would cover the fruit on the ground beneath the tree with straw, and in the spring would pack the long-keeping apples in barrels for the market. It ripens in October. Burford Brothers has reintroduced this variety to circulation."

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From http://www.knouse.com/index.cfm?do=allaboutapples, this item on another long-keeper:

The York Imperial

According to local legend, it was springtime in the early 1800s, when eastern York County, PA, school children kicking through leaves unearthed apples that had apparently fallen from the tree the year before.

Finding them to be firm, they ate them, and liked the flavor. A local farmer tried one for himself and was equally impressed by the apple's long-keeping quality.

Following the next season's crop, that farmer took some samples to a nearby nursery operator named Jonathan Jessup, who grafted a stem from the tree onto another on his farm. The result is a strain that was originally known as the "Imperial of Keepers," or the York Imperial.

From the early 1900s through 1930, that long-keeping quality made the York Imperial a popular choice for export to European markets. As a result the York Imperial came to dominate the apple industry that stretches from northern Virginia to southern Pennsylvania. European import restrictions put an end to the York Imperial's golden era….

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And now info on some long-keeping cultivars from the other side of the pond...

This is a very interesting item from a British site (http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/Apple/apple8.htm):

Long keeping apples

Some apple varieties are best eaten newly picked, but at the other end of the range there are apples with a remarkable keeping quality for a fresh fruit.

On the long journeys which our sailors used to make, there was always a danger of scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C, which caused general weakness, anaemia, gum disease, loose teeth and skin heamorrhages.

Long keeping apples, such as the ‘Hunthouse’ variety were taken to sea and were a precious resource in the days before canned fruit and vegetables and vitamin pills.

There is a variety called ‘Hambledon Deux Ans’, which can, with care, be kept for as long as two years.

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From http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/fruits/applevar.htm, here's some info on a couple of long-keeping apples:

Bramley's Seedling or Bramley is the most widely sold cooking apple in Britain. It has an unusually long keeping season ranging from early autumn to the following summer….

Newtown Pippin is an old, well-established American variety but not widely grown today because the tree is awkward to manage….This variety produced a heavy crop of yellowish-green apples which were crisp but juicy, acidic but sweet, and with exceptional keeping qualities. Ripening in midwinter, they will keep until the following summer. The tree was unrivaled as an apple producer but very sensitive to soil and climate conditions and thus it lost its popularity among growers toward the end of the 19th century.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Erdman, Jim [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Erdman, Jim
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005 12:40 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Best keeping apples?

The current discussion of earliest ripening apples is interesting, and it occurred to me that I would like more info on good keeping apples.  I ate the last of our Fireside apples from the 2004 crop on the 4th of July.  I was cleaning out part of the root cellar and discovered a bag of moldering Northwestern Greenings and also one lone last Fireside in another bag.  (We store our apples in large plastic bags, in cube-shaped plastic milk crates, in the root cellar portion of our basement.)
The Greenings may have had some usable parts, but sorting through them didn't appeal to me, but the Fireside looked good except for a little wrinkling on a spot or two, and was a bit soft to the touch.  There was a nice crunch to it when I took a bite, and the flesh was still tasty but a bit coarser than earlier in the winter.
I haven't had apples keep much past May in the past (although that is partly due to eating them all earlier in the winter, also).  We store them in a room of the basement that is completely divided from the heated part of the house, and it is cooled in the fall by opening a window when it starts to cool off outside.  It gets near 33 degrees or so in cold weather (January-February) and is about 55 to 60 degrees F now.
I suspect that part of the reason our apples kept better this year is that I was careful to cool them after picking (the weather co-operated for that) by moving them in and out of the garage or barn as needed to take advantage of cool nights in the fall.
I also had Melrose and Yellow Newtosh keep past the New Year, but don't recall when the last of them were used.
 
So, my question is, what other apples are keeping into the spring under similar conditions to my root cellar?
 
Jim Erdman, in Menomonie, WI



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