North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["David Consolvo" <fruitopia@firstva.com>]

Hi, I live in Albemarle County (central Virginia), so that must make me an 
infallible authority on the Albemarle Pippin.  Of course we never call it a 
Newtown Pippin here, even though Newtown came first.

My holler has "pippin land", a dark sandy loam which was considered ideal for 
the Albemarle Pippin.  A neighbor, since died, told me they grew apples in 
the holler, which is what they sold, and corn up the mountainside, which is 
what they ate.  Some of you at the NAFEX meeting near here saw my last 
Albemarle Pippin tree planted in the 1890's.

My experience with the old trees around here is that its production is of 
average reliability.  It is not particularly disease resistant.  Apples are 
typically greenish yellow.  A really tree-ripened apple which had good sun 
can have a pink (not red) blush on the sun side.  Those are the best-tasting 
ones.

They store great, even in less-than-ideal conditions.  Taste improves with 
storage.  Like most apples, those picked real early last longest, but never 
taste as good.

Pure Albemarle Pippin cider (before the 1990's pasteurization law) brought 
twice the price of my other types (which were already priced high), and sold 
out immediately.  It was unequivocably richer than other ciders.  But I was 
careful to pick them only when fully ripe.
~David Consolvo
Hungrytown, Virginia


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date:  Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:24:35 -0400

>I was actually excited when I checked my mail and saw 4 new NAFEX entries
>but dismayed to find they were almost entirely devoted to a tuber and not
>fruit- oh well.  Most of us on the list have vegetable gardens, myself
>included, so I can see how this would be of interest here but this being
>harvest time for many apple varieties I thought I'd get back to topic one-
>tree fruit.
>
>Much of my childhood was spent in southern California where my favorite
>apple became something the grocery markets called Green Pippin.  It was
>marketed by one chain as "the ugly apple that tastes good".  By ugly, I
>guess they meant it looked nothing like Red Delicious which should be
>marketed as "the beautiful apple that tastes bad".
>
>In recent years I have learned that the apple of my youth was actually
>Abermarle Pippin which is actually Newton Pippin, at least according to
>Beach in "The Apples of New York".  A while ago I heard about this apple
>being grown in the Northeast and looking into Beach's book found it was an
>important commercial variety in warmer parts of NY up until the early 20th
>century.  I also learned at the NAFEX meeting in Santa Cruz Ca. that it is
>still grown in the Santa Cruz area which may have been the orgin of the
>apples of my childhood.
>
>At the NAFEX meeting in Charlottsville VA. I tasted this apple for the first
>time in my adult life when Tom Burford offered me a slice at Jefferson's
>Monticello estate.  It was an apple that Jefferson had grown.  I savored its
>rich flavor but made no connection to my original Green Pippin, perhaps
>because this apple was yellow.  Beach explains that the yellow and green
>versions are so much alike that one is almost certainly a sport of the
>other.
>
>Shortly after putting the Newton Pippin story together I decided to try to
>grow it and harvested the first apples this year from my tree.  It is very
>good right off the tree and reputedly a wonderful storage apple so I'm
>guessing it might be a winner here- a green tart apple that far surpasses
>Granny Smith in flavor in my opinion.
>
>I'm wondering how reliably it crops and if it will turn yellow in storage.
>If it stays green and tart and crops reliably I really have to wonder why so
>many commercial growers around here bother with the chalky Granny Smith
>which tastes like an unripe apple to me even when grown in Washington State.
>
>I look forward to any comments by other members on their experience with
>this variety.
>
>
>
 




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