North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Harrick, Barbara" <b.harrick@ilslaunch.com>]

Jerry and all--I would guess that the Hewes Crabapple is what was in our
yard--the description is spot on and we were in Virginia, adjacent to
Mt. Vernon Plantation on the Potomac River.

There are quite a few entries on the Web about Hewes--all complimentary.
Below is an excerpt from the Thomas Jefferson Monticello Gardens.
Monticello's website is: http://www.twinleaf.org/articles/hewes.html


Hewes' Crab: "Ambrosia"
This cider apple, also known as Hughes' Crab and Virginia Crab, was the
most common fruit variety grown in eighteenth-century Virginia. In an
1814 letter to James Mease that was published in the Memoirs of the
Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, Jefferson attempted to
recall the history of the Hewes': "I remember it well upwards of 60
years ago, & that it was then a common apple on the James river." In
property advertisements in Williamsburg's Virginia Gazette between 1755
and 1777, the Hewes' Crab appeared more times than all other described
fruit varieties combined. Jefferson wrote home from Chestertown,
Maryland in 1797 and suggested the superior reputation of Hewes' cider:
"It will be worth his [son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph] while to have
the making of his crab cyder well attended to hereafter, as I learn here
that good cyder of the qualities commonly at market sell for a quarter
of a dollar the bottle, wholesale. Crab cyder would probably command
more." A friend of Jefferson, John Hartwell Cocke, proclaimed that the
Hewes' produced "the best cider I have ever seen."

The Hewes' is a maverick apple. Its vigorous, growth habit suggests that
it may be a cross between a native American crabapple, Malus
angustifolia, and the domesticated apple of horticulture. Virginian
Landon Carter's "crabs" were the only apple unhurt by a late spring
frost in 1772. In 1814 Henry Wynkoop of Pennsylvania lamented the
unexplained decline in the health of his dessert apples, yet he rejoiced
in the "smooth and fair" progress of his Hewes' Crabs. The fruit is very
small, one to two inches round, with a dull-red to bright, pinkish-red
skin. When pressing the Hewes' for cider, the juice "runs through the
finest flannel like spring water," or, according to another writer, "the
liquor flows from the pumice as water from a sponge." The juice,
described as "ambrosia" by one colleague, is both sugary and pungently
tart, cinnamon-flavored, and delicious.

Peter J. Hatch, Director
Monticello Gardens and Grounds
January 1995

Barbara Harrick
Senior Technical Editor/Writer
International Launch Services
1875 Explorer Street, Suite 700
Reston, VA 20190
office (571) 633-7430
fax (571) 633-7536

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I  have heard that crab apples really add flavor to apple cider if  used
in 
small amounts.  I'm thinking of planting a crab apple tree for that
reason. 
Has anybody added crab apples to applesauce to add zest?  Or  anything
else like 
pie?  Jerry in southern  Indiana