While apples were not eaten at the first Thanksgiving meal in North America they eventually would be. Here are the oldest apple varieties that originated in North America growing here at our Hocking Hills Orchard. These are all pre United States and well worth growing.
Roxbury Russet - Massachusetts, early 1600’s. Large greenish, sometimes bronze tinged skin almost completely covered with yellowish brown russet. Firm, slightly coarse, yellowish white flesh. Remarkable for its amount of sugar. Excellent for eating fresh, cooking and cider. Ripens in October.
Rhode Island Greening - Rhode Island, 1650. Late ripening, large fruit is smooth and unctuous to the touch, dark green at first, becoming pale as it ripens, sometimes with a faint blush. Yellowish flesh is tender, crisp, juicy with a rich, brisk, and aromatic flavor. Unctuous is an odd word that means greasy or oily. Arkansas Black and Lowell apple varieties also display this tendency when fully ripe.
Rambo - Delaware, 1630’s. AKA Winter Rambo is one of the oldest varieties grown in the US. So as not to confuse the Rambo apple with the unrelated Summer Rambo (also known as the Rambour Franc), the Rambo has also been called the Winter Rambo. Other names given to the Rambo over the years include Romanite, Bread and Cheese (perhaps after Bread and Cheese Island in Delaware), Seek-No-Further, Delaware, and Striped Rambo.
Summer Sweeting - This is a very old American apple having originated in the Plymouth Colony in the 1600’s and was first recorded in 1822. Fruit is small to medium with smooth greenish-yellow skin with an occasional red blush. The yellow flesh is tender, dry, and very sweet. Ripens June to July in most areas.
Tolman Sweet - Massachusetts, late 1600’s. May be a Sweet Greening x unknown Russet cross that was found growing in Dorchester, MA well before 1700. Highly esteemed for baking, stewing and making cider, this is one of the best late sweet apples. Pale yellow skin with russet lines envelops firm, white, sweet fleshed medium to large apples.
Email me at derekcs2005@aol.com for info on scions for the above and others of our 1,854 varieties.
Derek A Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio.
