Heritage Apples

On Saturday, my new shipment of heritage apples arrived. I spent part of yesterday afternoon mixing together some organic soil and compost, and got all 17 grafts into pots. Then I had to fight with the 3 roosters and four breeding hens over the mulch pile, where I have been heeling my plants that I was not able to get planted for overwintering. I did get them in, after much shooshing and chicken chasing. My two varieties, which I ordered back in early 2008, are Fox, which will be used for cooking and our apple butters, and Golden Pearmain, an excellent eating apple. Here are descriptions and pictures:

Fox - This is one of the many apples once collected and grown by the late Henry Morton of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Henry was responsible for collecting dozens of rare and lost varieties in his many years of work and is most famous for preserving the many old apple trees which were once prolific in the valleys and hollows of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. During the creation of the park many long-time residents were forced to abandon their lands and homesteads including their prized apple orchards. Due to Henry's efforts many of these extraordinary varieties were carefully collected and saved for future generations. The Fox was one of Henry's discoveries. If you like a sour apple then the Fox is the apple for you! It is a medium to large, greenish-yellow apple with a very tart and unusual flavor. The tartness of the Fox may be too intense for many palates but it does make an outstanding cooking apple. Makes wonderful apple butter and is excellent for cider. Ripens in August and is a poor keeper.

Golden Pearmain (Clarke’s Pearmain, Yellow Pearmain) - A beautiful apple of obscure origin. Golden Pearmain is believed to be one of the original apples grown in Thomas Jefferson’s orchards in Monticello. The medium-sized, somewhat conical fruit has an attractive golden-orange skin, marbled and striped with red and bronze. The fine-grained, yellow flesh is firm, crisp and juicy. Ripens in October and is a fair keeper.

I will probably be getting a couple more common varieties for delivery next spring when we will get the whole orchard planted. Also going to get a few sour cherries. Mmmm. Apple and cherry pies!