Apple Orchard Inventory
(right to left; front to back; three trees per row; viewed from the fence)
(bolded names are center row of immediate concern – to be replaced by the trees in the expansion section)
1. Yellow Transparent Apple -- cooking & dessert
2. Ben Davis Apple -- cooking; stores well
3. Golden Grimes Apple -- cooking & dessert
4. Fall Pippin Apple -- eating
5. Ablemarle Pippin Apple (misspelling for “Albemarle”) -- eating & dessert
1 Yellow Transparent Apple is one of hundreds of Russian apples imported into the United States by the USDA in the late 1800’s as part of a program to introduce very cold-hardy varieties that could be raised successfully in the coldest regions of the country. Ripens early summer & loses flavor as the color fades to white.
2 Ben Davis Apple is well-known and very famous old southern apple noted for its rapid growth and excellent keeping qualities. Originated in the South in the 1800’s and was quite an important commercial variety praised forits durability and ruggedness during shipping. The fruit is so durable and hardy, Northern-grown apples raised for shipping were often hand-shoveled onto railroad cars without incurring any significant damage! Known to apple growers in the 19th Century as a “mortgage lifter” for its reliability in fruit production and ability to hang firmly onthe tree late into the season. Though historically never considered a very high-quality fresh eating apple, Calhoun in Old Southern Apples (2011) believes the apple does not qualify for the widespread condemnation it received in older books and references. He says these early bad reviews resulted from apples grown too far north to ripen properly. A USDA bulletin from 1910 states that Southern-grown Ben Davis apples were “generally more juicy andof notably better quality” than Northern-grown apples. Medium size with waxy, bright yellow skin mottled with dark and bright red blushing. Ripens in October and improves in flavor while in storage.
3 Grimes Golden Apple was found by Thomas Grimes in Brooke County, West Virginia, in 1804, near the town of Fowlersville. This town is near Wellsburg, West Virginia, where John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, and his brother established a nursery. Grimes Golden is believed to be one of the parents of Golden Delicious.
Roundish or slightly oblong in form, the fruit is small to medium in size, and the skin is greenish-yellow, ripening to a clear yellow. It is sometimes roughened with yellow or russet dots. The yellowish flesh is crisp and tender, with a spicy, sweet flavor. A good all-purpose dessert and cooking apple, it contains 18.81% sugar that ferments to a 9% alcohol, and was popular for the making of hard cider in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It tends to overcrop, and must be heavily-thinned to produce large fruit. The leaves are shiny and smooth, dark green in color, and heavily folded with fine serrations. Heavy pruning to remove its bushy growth will also improve fruit production.
There are knobs at the base of its branches, making the limbs more resistant to breakage.
4 Fall Pippin Apple is an old apple dating to the early 1800’s and formerly a very popular variety, especially in the Shenandoah Valley where it was favored as an early winter apple. Thought to be an American apple though true origin is unknown. Fruit is large, somewhat oblong in shape, with thin clear yellow skin. Flesh is white, tinged with yellow and tender, juicy and aromatic. Ripens in August and September.
5 Albemarle Pippin Apple, the most famous of Virginia apples, originated in 1700 near the village of Newtown on Long Island, New York. Col. Thomas Walker of Castle Hill brought scions of the variety back to Albemarle County as he returned from service under General Washington at the battle of Brandywine in 1777. It was grown widely in Virginia by the end of the18th century by agriculturists, including George Washington, John Hartwell Cocke, and Thomas Jefferson. The crisp, juicy, firm flesh and very distinctive taste, along with its excellent keeping qualities, made the Pippin the most prized of American dessert apples from the early 18th century.
6. Red Winter Pearmain Apple -- dessert
7. Red Royal Limbertwig Apple
8. Horse Apple
9. Virginia Beauty Apple
10. Hewes Crab Apple
11. Carolina Red June Apple
12. Magnum Bonum Apple
Pear Orchard (front to back)
1. Keiffer Pear -- cooking7
2. Seckel Pear -- cooking and dessert8
(original died; has been replaced - 11/15/23)
3. Keiffer Pear -- cooking
Expansion of Apple Orchard (also right to left; front to back; 2 trees per row; viewed from the fence) the Virginia Piedmont and attracted great notoriety when Andrew Stevenson, the American minister to St. James, presented the young Victoria with a gift basket of the apples in 1838 from his wife's Albemarle County home, Enniscorthy. "Never did a barrel of apples obtain so much reputation for the fruits of our country," Sallie Coles Stevenson reported. As a gesture of appreciation, Parliament permitted the Virginia apple to enter Britain duty-free, and the Albemarle Pippin became an important export, commanding premium prices in the English market.
After World War I, Parliament levied duties again on non-Commonwealth fruit, and the Pippin's market waned.
6 Red Winter Pearmain Apple is also called Batchelor, Buncombe, Bunkum, Jackson's Red, Kisby's Red, Powers, Red Fall Pippin, Red Gilliflower, Red Lady Finger, Red Vandevere, Robertson's Pearmain, Southern Fall Pippin and Tinson's Red. Its origin is unknown, but it may have come from Buncombe County, North Carolina, and was described in 1867 by Warder. Medium to large in size, and rectangular to conic in shape, the smooth yellow skin is almost entirely flushed maroon with indistinct stripes and large light dots. This dessert apple has whitish-yellow flesh that is tender, juicy, and subacid to slightly sweet, with a pronounced aroma. Red Winter Pearmain or Buncombe, as it was popularly known in the Middle Atlantic States, stores for a short period and ripens in September.
7 Kieffer Pear trees are native to the Philadelphia region and were first recorded at Peter Kieffer’s fruit nursery in the 1870s. Kieffer pears formed from an accidental cross between a sand pear (Asian) and a bartlett pear (European): botanically classified as a cross between the European bartlett pear, Pyrus communis, and the Asiansand pear, Pyrus pyrifolia. It is an old American variety that is a member of the Rosaceae family along with apricotsand apples. Kieffer pears were once a popular variety to plant in orchards and use as property lines for farms. Growing up to six meters in height, Kieffer pear trees are resistant to disease, prolific, hardy, and have a long life. Kieffer pears require a chilling period which allows the fruit to ripen over a period of time and are classified as awinter pear used for canning, baking, and fresh eating.
8 Many believe that Seckel pear trees are the only truly American variety of pear grown commercially. Unlike other varieties planted in the U.S. from European cultivars, Seckels are thought to have originated as a wild seedling near Philadelphia. Its history remains uncertain, though the general consensus is that this pear is a hybrid of Asian and European pears. The name comes from a local farmer who found a “wild sapling” growing just outside Philadelphia in the late 1700's. It is possible that German immigrants travelling westward through the areadropped fruit or left seeds behind. One historical note come from Thomas Jefferson who planted a 'Seckel Pear' at Monticello in 1807, and said that this variety "exceeded anything I have tasted since I left France, and equalled anypear I had seen there." Seckel pears ripen on the tree yielding juicy, fine grained, melting, sweet, spicy flesh. Goodfor preserving, spicing. Hardiest bloom in the spring. Resistant to fire blight. The Seckel pear tree is naturally semi-dwarf .
1. Ablemarle Pippin Apple (also known as “Newton” – original stock from Monticello)
2. Horse
3. Carolina Red June
4. Magnum Bonum
5. Virginia Beauty9
6. Ben Davis
rev.01.02.2024
9 Once a very well-known and desirable apple rivaling Red Delicious for popularity, Virginia Beauty is now a rare apple. The apple originated from a seed planted in 1810 in the backyard of Zach Safewright in the Piper’s Gap community of Carroll Co., Virginia. The original tree stood until 1914. Fruit medium to large, often lopsided, with smooth, dark red or purplish skin. Flesh is greenish yellow, fine-grained, tender, juicy, and mildly subacid. Ripens October-February and is a good keeper. Look for the russet starburst shape spilling over the apple’s top. The tree is known for producing wide branching angles, a trait that aids in producing proper tree structure. The fruit is bestsimply sliced for a light dessert but can also be used for sweet cider, applesauce, or apple butter. Also known as “Zach” and “Zach Red”.
Smithfield hosted local Master Gardeners & Master Naturalists in Smithfield's heirloom orchard for a tree pruning class taught by John Vest, from Virginia Cooperative Extension. Students and Smithfield Staff learned about best pruning practices and got some hands-on training, and in return, Smithfield’s orchard got some needed care.