Apple Index - "Clapper Flat to Curtis"

Clapper Flat (Flat Apple)

Two Red Apples and Watercolor Print

Description: Fruit above medium, oblate, slightly conical; skin mostly covered with stripes and splashes of red; dots whitish, large. Flesh yellowish, moderately juicy, tender, mild subacid. Ripe Late August/September.

History: Downing (1869) says this apple originated in Bethlehem, New York. Dr. Littleton found Clapper Flat near Petersburg, West Virginia.

Uses: Cooking

 

Clark

Two Red Apples and Watercolor Print

Description: Fruit large; skin green with russet around the stem; flesh subacid. Ripe mid-August in Georgia.

History: A seedling found before 1853 growing on the lot of Robert Campbell of Clarksville, Habersham County, Georgia.  Rediscovered by Tom Brown.

Uses: Fresh Eating, Cooking

 

Clarke's Pearmain (Golden Pearmain, Clark's Pearmain, Yellow Pearmain, Gloucester Pearmain)

Two Red Apples

Description: Fruit medium, roundish conical; skin mostly yellow or orangish, greenish yellow in the shade but much marbled and striped with dull red in the sun, some bronze on the skin; dots numerous, russet or whitish russet. Flesh greenish yellow or yellow, fine-grained, juicy, firm, crisp, subacid. Ripe September/October.

History: Thomas Jefferson’s gardens and orchards at Monticello have been meticulously restored. Every attempt is made to find and grow the same fruits and vegetables that he grew and recorded in his journals. Mr. Jefferson had an apple he called Golden Pearmain, which is a synonym of Clarke’s Pearmain. A “Clarke’s Pearmain” was listed by Thomas Sorsby’s Virginia nursery in 1755 and 1763.

Uses: Cooking, Fresh Eating

 

Clark's Orange (Clark)

Two Yellow Apples

Description: Fruit medium to large, roundish to slightly oblong; skin yellowish or orange, sometimes obscurely striped; flesh white, juicy, subacid. Ripe August/September.

History: The 1877 meeting of the American Pomological Society briefly discussed this apple. It probably originated in Ohio and is one of many apples rediscovered by Dr. L. R. Littleton in Virginia and West Virginia. The only known tree of Clarks’ Orange belonged to Jearl Kisamore of Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. Mr. Kisamore said a ripe apple “feels like it has honey on its peeling.”

Uses: Sauce

 

Coble's Wilder

Two Yellow Apples

Description: Fruit medium, roundish to oblong, conical; skin yellow with very faint, pale pink stripes on the sunny side; dots small, pink and russet. Flesh pale yellow, juicy, not very crisp, subacid. Ripe July.

History: From the 1923 catalog of the North State Nursery Company, Julian, North Carolina: “Originated on our nursery farm. A vigorous tree. Fruit medium size, red on yellow, crisp, highly flavored. Grows in clusters. Very prolific. August.” Coble’s Wilder was considered extinct in the first edition of Lee Calhoun’s book, but an old tree bearing this name was later found by Jimmy Hargrove.

Uses: Fresh Eating

Coe

Two Red Apples

Description: This apple is medium, roundish, often lopsided; skin virtually covered with medium red with a few embedded darker stripes; dots numerous, large, pale gray with russet centers. Flesh pale greenish, crisp, juicy, subacid. Ripe late August.

History: In 1901 and again in 1910 a Coe apple was listed by Greensboro Nurseries, Greensboro, North Carolina. Briefly described as “large, roundish ovate, slightly oblique; skin smooth, red stripes on yellow; flesh tender, subacid. Ripe September/October.” This apple probably originated with W. A. Coe of Vandalia, North Carolina. In 2006 Jimmy Hargrove found a Coe apple still being grown by John Coble near Julian, North Carolina.

 

Coffee Seedling

Two Red Apples

Description: Fruit are to very large with roundish shape; skin greenish, completely covered with red; numerous raised white lenticels present; cavity medium, acute, with russet spilling over the top, stem short to medium and somewhat thick; basin shallow, medium with open calyx.  Ripe October.

History: Origin unknown.  Discovered by Tom Brown in Rabun County, Georgia.

Uses: Fresh Eating, Cooking, Stores well

 

Cothren

Two Yellow Apples

Description: Fruit large, oblate; skin yellow, partly covered with red stripes. Flesh firm, juicy, subacid. Ripe August/September.

History: Wilkes County, North Carolina, a mountain county, has been a gold mine of old apple varieties. Tom Brown has spent years tracking down the old apples of Wilkes County. Cothren is one of his many discoveries. A ninety-seven-year-old woman there remembers Cothren apples from early in her life, and at least three old trees were found by Tom Brown in 2000.

 

Cotton Sweet

Three Yellow Apples

Description: Fruit small, roundish to somewhat oblong. Skin green that lightens to a light yellow when ripe. Lenticels inconspicuous. Ripe July-August.

History: Found in Virginia and western North Carolina.

Uses: Fresh Eating, Cooking

Court Pendu Plat (Cort Pendu Plat, Garnons, Poor Man's Apple, Wise Apple)

One Red Apple

Description: Fruit medium size. Squat, almost flattened apple. Skin light green flushed with red and orange, short interrupted stripes, fawn-colored patches of russet. Flesh is yellowish, slightly crisp, barely juicy, sweet, intensely fruity, becoming sweeter as it matures in storage. Has a distinct licorice flavor.  Ripens October

History: While this apple is thought to have existed during the days of the Roman Empire, it was documented in the early 1400s in the Normandy region of France where is was widely grown through the 1600s. The Court Pendu Plat is possibly a forerunner to the Cox’s Orange Pippin.

Uses: Fresh Eating, Cooking, Stores well

Description courtesy of pomiferous.com.

 

Cow

Two Yellow Apples

Description: Fruit medium or below; roundish, conical; skin green, completely covered with light yellow. Raised brown lenticels, sometimes numerous; cavity medium, acute, russet spilling over the top; stem very long; basin shallow to medium, somewhat narrow with open calyx.  Ripe September.

Discovered by Tom Brown.

Cox's Orange Pippin

Two Red Apples and Watercolor Print

One of the truly great fresh eating dessert apples. It originated in 1825 in England from seeds of Ribston Pippin. Superlatives abound when describing the flavor – spicy, honeyed, nutty, pear-like. A rich, full flavored apple with a pleasing aroma. Fruit is medium sized with yellowish skin flushed with an attractive reddish-orange blush. Cream colored flesh is fine-grained, firm and juicy. Ripens September to October and keeps until January.

Uses: Fresh Eating, Stores well

Description courtesy of Big Horse Creek Farm at bighorsecreekfarm.com. 

 

Crack Apple

Two Red Apples

Description: Fruit small, oblate; skin rough with a light bloom, covered in medium to dark red with obscure stripes; dots large, protruding.  Flesh moderately crisp and juicy, almost sweet. Ripe October.

History: At the old homeplace of Kelly Bowman’s mother near Taylorsville, North Carolina, Tom Brown found this tree and two others nearby.

Crimson Beauty (Early Red Bird, Red Bird)

Two Red Apples and Watercolor Print

Description: Fruit medium or below, roundish to oblate, lobed; skin mostly blushed and striped red and crimson, some bloom; dots numerous, whitish, some areole. Flesh white, fine-grained, not very juicy, rather soft, subacid to acid, often stained red on the sunny side. Ripe June.

History: Named and trademarked by Stark Bro’s Nursery, which sold it from about 1915 to the 1930s. They advertised it as the earliest of all apples. Early Red Bird originated about 1880 with Francis P. Sharp (1823-1903) of New Brunswick, Canada, who called it Crimson Beauty and first exhibited it in 1895.

Uses: Cooking, Sauce, Does not store well

 

Crow Egg

Three Red Apples

Description:  Medium sized, oblate, red-blushed.  Ripens Late August to September in central NC.

History: The Worcester County Horticultural Society in Massachusetts has sold scions of this variety for many years.

Uses: Fresh Eating

Cullasaga (Winter Horse, Cullasaja, Callasaga)

Two Red Apples and Watercolor Print

Description: Fruit medium or above to large, roundish; skin smooth, tough, mostly covered with brick red with a few darker stripes; dots numerous, irregular, whitish. Flesh yellow, compact, tender, juicy, aromatic, mild subacid to almost sweet. Ripe Late September/October.

History: Nancy Bryson (b. 1804, m. Jehodia Hunnicutt) grew Cullasaga from a seed of the Horse Apple circa 1830 at her parent’s home near Salem Methodist Church in Macon County, North Carolina. It was introduced about 1850 by the great North Carolina pomologist Silas McDowell who named it for the nearby Cullasaja River and gorge. In 1894 the original tree was still standing with a trunk almost ten feet in circumference.  In 1989, it was considered extinct.  In March of that year, Lee Calhoun received a letter from Bob Padgett who lived near Highlands in Macon County: “My neighbors have a Cullasaja apple tree. It is a very tall tree and beginning to fall apart, but it still bears apples. It is reported to be over a hundred years old.”

Uses: Multipurpose

Curtis

Two Red Apples

In 1829, apples of this name were sent to William Prince, the noted nurseryman on Long Island, New York, by J. B. Russell of Virginia. Described by Kendrick (1841). “Skin smooth, red; flesh juicy. Ripe mid to end of August.” A Curtis Superb was listed in 1873 by Hopewell Nurseries of Virginia.

Uses: Fresh Eating