Our Apples
Winesap
What makes Winesap apples so appealing? For apple growers, just about everything about them.
Blending sweet and tart flavors, the flavor of Winesap apples has many of the qualities of a fine wine, resulting in the common name of the tree. The fruit itself is a draw, delicious and crunchy, yet keeping well in storage up to six months. The apples are wonderful, but the tree has many attractive qualities as well. It grows on many soil types, including clay. It is immune to cedar apple rust, requires little maintenance and produces a reliable harvest year after year. The tree is also ornamental. In the spring, Winesap apple trees provide a lacy show of white or soft pink blossoms. In the fall, when the apples ripen, their red color provides a striking contrast to the green canopy. That’s just about the time to start a harvest.
Winesap apples originated in New Jersey over 200 years ago and have been gaining the favor of growers and apple lovers ever since.
Ablemarle Pippin
The Ablermarle Pippin was brought to the Colonies from England as early as 1666. It was known as the Newtown Pippin, named for the area of New York where it became a popular variety. When introduced to the mountains of Virginia, the tasty apple took on an even better taste and a new name.
Known to be grown by both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Ablermarle Pippins found their sweet home in the county of Virginia that gave the fruit its new identity. Citrusy and tart, the apple that once commanded a price 3 times more than any other in England, is now mainly blended into cider.
Arkansas Black
Thought to be descended from the Winesap variety, the Arkansas Black’s smooth, dark ebony skin distinguishes this variety of apple but it is the taste which puts it into a class by itself. With strong cherry notes, the Arkansas Black starts crisp and tart-sweet and slowly reveals hints of cinnamon, vanilla, coriander, and occasionally even a touch of anise. The complexity of this apple’s tart-sweet flavor actually develops more the longer it is off the tree.
Like our other varieties, this heirloom variety is delicious to eat on its own, but is harvested for our cider makers nearby.
Wickson Crab
The Wickson Crabapple may look like other crabapples but has an unusually sweet taste mixing with a strong acid component. The result is an apple which has a very strong flavor, making it an excellent component for cider blends.
Developed by Albert Etter, an early apple enthusiast, by merging two other crabapple varieties. Etter named his apple after his friend Edward J. Wickson, a leading Californian pomologist and considered to be “The Father of California Agriculture”.
The Wickson Crabapple are one of the few apples native to California.
Smith’s Cider
This crisp, juicy, mild sub-acid variety, known by many names (Smith, Poplar Bluff, Popular Bluff, Fuller’s Cider, Fowler, Pennsylvania Cider, Choice Kentuck, Jackson Winesap, Smith’s, Oregon Spitzenburg, Buck’s County Cider, Smith’s Superb, Cider, Kentucky Choice) perhaps because its taste lends itself to other use beyond just cider, including eating one fresh off the tree.
Known as a hearty variety and a vigorous grower, Smith Cider apples were brought to Frederick County, VA from Bucks County PA by Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
