A committee composed of members of the Herefordshire Fruit-Growers’ Association and of the Fruit and Chrysanthemum Society was appointed in 1899 to make a selection of vintage apples and pears best suited to Herefordshire and the districts adjoining.
The following is the list drawn up by the committee:
The Apples:
Old Foxwhelp
Cherry Pearmain
Cowarne Red
Dymock Red
Eggleton Styre
Kingston Black or Black Taunton
Skyrme’s Kernel
Spreading Redstreak
Carrion Apple
Cherry Norman
Cummy Norman
Royal Wilding
Handsome Norman
Strawberry Norman
White Bache or Norman
Broad-leaved Norman
and
Argile Grise
Bramtot
De Boutville
Frequin Audievre
Medaille d’Or
These last five being “French sorts” introduced from Normandy about 1880, and now established in the orchards of Herefordshire.
Adapted from an online version of the1911 Encyclopedia Britannica – Article: CIDER, or CYDER (from the Fr. cidre, derived from the Lat. sicera or cisera, Gr. mucepa, Heb. shade, strong drink)
Truly an essential resource for anyone interested in learning more about America’s national fruit.
It’s handy to have handy – as a quick reference when we encounter new and unknown apples, when eating in-hand or while cider sampling. What is this apples history, how was it named, where is it from, can I bake with it, what is it’s flavor profile? So many questions, and Mr. Burford has the answer to 192 varieties.
Just flip through the pages to learn about the vast diversity of apples still available, if we only seek them out.
Photograph by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross Conservancy
Where & When:
Fort Ross State Historic Park 19005 Coast Hwy Jenner, CA 95450
Saturday, April 12, 2014 from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM (PDT)
Event Details:
In 1814, the Russians at Fort Ross began their orchard by planting a peach tree. They and the ranchers who followed planted trees and harvested fruit from the site for over 150 years, and a number of historic trees still survive today.
In celebration of the historic Fort Ross orchard’s 200th anniversary, Fort Ross Conservancy is hosting a conference on orchards and orchard management. Lectures by experts from the National Park Service and California State Parks will discuss the history of orchards, historic orchard care, and tree preservation. A tour of the Fort Ross orchard will follow, with an opportunity to discuss recent management at the site.
The Fort Ross orchard was planted by the Russians in 1814 and several trees from the mid 1800s are still living, including two Russian-era cherry trees. This conference celebrates the 200th anniversary of the historic orchards at Fort Ross. Conference speakers include:
Susan Dolan, Park Cultural Landscapes Program Manager with National Park Service, will provide an overview of the history of orchards, and discuss basic techniques in orchard stabilization,
Jan Wooley, Historic Preservationist with California State Parks, will discuss orchards and ongoing work within the California State Parks System,
Susan Rudy, Fort Ross Conservancy Advisor and lead orchard volunteer, will describe the history and ongoing care of the Fort Ross orchard,
Amigo Bob Cantisano (tentative) will discus the Felix Gillet Historic Orchard Project. This organization identifies, preserves, and propagates the best varieties of fruit and nut trees still thriving in the mining camps, farms, homesteads and towns of the Sierra that were introduced by Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, Calfiornia, in 1871.
Schedule for the Day
10am – 1pm Lecture/Presentations in the Fort Ross Visitor Center auditorium
1:30-2:30 Lunch at the orchard
2:30-3:30 Historic Fort Ross Orchard tour
4pm Optional tour of the Fort Ross Historic Compound.
Special event fees apply:
$10 per person for conference and historic orchard tour.
*plus* California State Parks entrance fee of $8 per car when parking at Fort Ross. (Please carpool!)
Optional boxed lunch delivered to the orchard: $15/ person, advanced purchase only.
Or you are welcome to bring your own picnic lunch!
For more information on the Fort Ross historic orchard visit the Orchard webpage.
Photograph by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross ConservancyPhotograph by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross ConservancyPhotograph by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross ConservancyPhotograph by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross Conservancy
All photos by Paul C. Miller, courtesy of Fort Ross Conservancy
Because there are so many folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate tastes. If he wants twenty or forty kinds of apples for his personal use, running from Early Harvest to Roxbury Russet, he should be accorded the privilege. Some place should be provided where he may obtain trees or scions. There is merit in variety itself. It provides more points of contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony.”
–Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Apple Tree, p. 68
(New York: Macmillan, 1922)
Compiled by:
Rebecca Mazur and Katie Winkleblack
National Agricultural Library
Agricultural Research Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
10301 Baltimore Avenue
Beltsville, MD 20705 agref@nal.usda.gov http://www.nal.usda.gov
September 2010
Updated September 2011
“This bibliography is a selected compilation from the rich pool of information resources at the National Agricultural Library about heirloom apples. It consists of a list of books and reports at the Library dating prior to 1928, with the addition of later books which focus on the subject of varieties of apples grown in the American past. It is organized into sections first by date and then in order of the author’s last name.”
Pomona’s Harvest: An Illustrated Chronicle of Antiquarian Fruit Literature by H. Frederic Janson, Timber Press, 1996.
From Timber Press:
“An intriguing history of books about fruit from antiquity to the Industrial Revolution, including many beautiful engravings from key works. The relationship of pomology to social history and the history of ideas is explored, and there is a bibliography describing more than 600 fruit-related sources.”
This is an extremely valuable resource for anyone interested in early pomological texts, and pomological illustration.
The Plan: A visit to The Cloisters Museum to Wassail the 4 quince trees that live in the Bonnefont Cloister.
The Wassail Implements: An empty soda can re-filled with dried beans – a bit of tape over the top to secure said beans, and a small travel-size plastic cosmetics bottle filled with 2 oz. of Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandy. Old World, New World Wassail To Go DIY Pocket Kit.*
The Cloisters Museum botanical collection includes pollarded crab apple trees, espaliered pears, exotic potted citrus fruits, and the famed quinces. Snowy conditions made it impossible to access the courtyards where the crab apples and quince reside, we could only view them through the frost-steamed windows of the Cruxa & Bonnefont Cloisters. We wished them a quiet Good Health and Good Fortune and vowed to return when the gardens were accessible in Spring.
A gallery talk, led by a knowledgeable and genial guide, focused on details of medieval life in the winter months, examining the seasonal feasting rituals and agricultural tasks that occupied the waking hours of medieval folk, including the varied wassailing traditions observed in the manor hall, monastery and village.
Pollarded crab apple trees in Cruxa Cloister
Read about the fascinating “medieval technique of hard pruning, known as pollarding” in this article, Woodsman, Pollard That Tree.
*repurposed New Years noisemakers are a perfect addition to the DIY-Wassail To Go Kit.
Wassail Day 1. Fortifying with Pear Brandy. Olmsted’s Sidecar Cocktail.
January 5, 2014.
The Plan: Locate and Wassail the four famous and beloved quince trees inside The Cloisters Museum at Fort Tryon Park.
As the site of the quince cloister garden IS in a museum – we reasoned our Wassail activities would need to be discrete, if not completely covert. The park was covered with snow, the air was frosty, and we decided a pre-Wassail ‘warming’ beverage to fortify ourselves was in order.
The New Leaf Restaurant & Bar, located in a 1930’s era rustic deco-medieval structure originally built as a concession stand for Fort Tryon Park, proved the perfect spot to enjoy a surprisingly tasty brunch and a Wassail-appropriate cocktail to launch the festivities.
The Cocktail: Olmstead’s Sidecar
Ingredients: Koval Organic Ginger Liqueur, pear cognac, and lemon.
“Olmsted’s Sidecar is made with Koval organic ginger liqueur (produced by a craft distillery in Chicago and hand bottled), pear cognac and lemon. Named for Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the landscape architect who planned Fort Tryon Park, which was completed in 1935. He is the son of the designer of Central Park.”
“New Leaf is an enterprise of the non-profit New York Restoration Project (NYRP). All net proceeds support NYRP’s mission of creating a greener, more sustainable NYC. Learn more at www.nyrp.org.”
Hello Friends of Cider! Join us in embracing Wassail in 2014.
We’re observing North American celebrations from January 5th to January 17th, 2014*, from ‘New’ 12th Night Eve to ‘Old’ 12th Night.
Our Goals for The 2014 Wassail: Explore Old & New World Wassail Traditions, Salute The Orchard, Honor The Apple, and Celebrate With Cider.
How are WE Wassailing?To being the festivities, January 5th, 2014, we visited “the four beloved quinces at the Cloisters Museum and Gardens, along the Hudson River in Fort Tryon Park.” The Wassail did not go as planned, but Pomona surprised us with an amazing Wassail Wonder.
Read more about the New York Quinces in this piece In Praise of the Misunderstood Quince by By Michael Tortorello, published May 2, 2012 in the New York Times.
*Note: Our Wassailing activities are likely to continue throughout the month of January 2014, yours can too!
Source: “U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705”
