My Grandpap's
Apple Orchard

A long time ago, on an farm in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, there was an orchard.

Over a hundred twenty-five years ago, my great grandfather, Joseph Henry Henderson, planted an orchard on his farm in the south-west corner of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, and just over the county line from Armstrong County. The size of my great grandfather's orchard was one hundred apple trees. Which nursery the trees came from, my father did not know. He thought his grandfather probably obtained his trees from a commercial traveller representing one of the many competing fruit tree nurseries in the greater Pittsburgh area selling bare-root whip orchard packages. It is also possible that he ordered the bare root trees by mail. My father tells me that ordering from the Peter Henderson seed catalog was a long family tradition, so ordering trees by mail could have been possible.

There were already a few apple trees near the house and elsewhere on the farm. One old tree growing by itself near the creek had small, bitter tasting, yellow fruit. Grandpap, perhaps in jest but certainly with a bit of contempt, called it their Johnny Appleseed tree. It was certainly possible, since Johnny Appleseed was known to have traveled in that part of Pennsylvania around the time the tree first sprouted. Johnny Appleseed did not believe in grafting, so all his trees were seedlings of unknown origins, and few were good for anything except making cider. Suggesting a tree was one Johnny Appleseed had planted was not a compliment.

My Grandpap, John G. Henderson improved upon his father's original orchard, making significant changes by discontinuing some varieties, removing trees, and adding others. One of his wife's cousins, Bob Fulton, was an expert in grafting apple trees and did much to enhance and improve the orchard. Behind his own house, Bob Fulton had a tree with eleven different varieties grafted to it. Sometime in the early 1920s Grandpap improved the enterprise by having an apple cave built into the side of a hill. It was reinforced with walls and a concrete slab for a roof. Fourteen different varieties were kept in the apple cave. There were more than fourteen varieties of apples in the orchard, but poor keeping varieties were not stored. Those that didn't sell out in their season were cooked, canned, or dried.

The apple business was a family operation. All the children had apple information grilled into them so they could serve customers. It wasn't enough that they could sell the apples; each child had to be able to recommend different apples. That may explain why my dad was able to remember the details of the orchard and its apples as well as he did.

Each apple variety was well suited for the Mid-Atlantic region and fit the early twentieth century standard for being commercially viable. However, each had its own special quality and purpose. Grandpap judged the quality of an apple variety primarily on its use and keeping quality. He favored utility apples like the Baldwin that were good for both cooking and fresh eating over specialty apples good only for baking or only for eating out of hand. In the age before electricification, mechanical refrigeration, and controlled atmosphere storage, an apple's natural keeping quality was an even more important quality and there was more of a need for a succession of apple varieties from those maturing in early summer to those ripening in November. With a head for business and marketing, Grandpap certainly paid attention to flavor and appearance, as well. My grandmother had her own opinion on the apples, having some favorites for pies and others for fresh applesauce. For canning, however, it didn't matter, and for apple butter and canned applesauce she used whatever apples were in danger of spoiling.

Cider-making was a big event in the fall. It was always made with a blend of apples, but the base for most ciders came from Baldwins.

The orchard was probably at its peak in number of vigorous trees during the 1920s and early 30s, when my father was growing up. Apple sales were a significant source of income during the depression, supplementing the Henderson dairy operation. Apples were sold both at the farm and along the milk route. When the dairy operation was expanded after World War II, the orchard became less important, and the trees were no longer maintained.

My great-grandfather and his neighbor (and cousin) Thomas Hood planted their original orchards at the same time. Cree Hood greatly expanded his father's orchard and made it his chief source of income. In 1946 my uncle Bob, fresh out of the army after World War II, bought the Hood farm, and he and his brother, my uncle Carl, spent several years and a lot of hard work trying to revive the orchard and make it profitable. They also constructed a commercial cider press. I have a faint childhood memory of a family gathering at a cider mill. What I remember most about the cider pressing is being teased about worms being crushed into the cider. One year their trees survived a frost when most other orchards in the area did not, and they made quite a sizeable profit. Another year a late frost killed off 90% of the blossoms, and they lost their crop. Realizing the uncertainty of orcharding, they both found second jobs. In December 1952, a fire destroyed the house that the brother's families shared (each lived on a different floor), and not many years after that the orchard was torn out to make more room for corn and pasture for their father's dairy farm.

The apple cave still exists, although it stores things other than apples, including kegs of maple syrup. My cousin's son Greg, the sixth generation of Hendersons to farm the same land, and his wife Jessica have planted a small orchard of apples, peaches, and pears -- so the tradition continues.

The list and descriptions of the following apple varieties come principally from a discussion I had with my dad, Joseph R. Henderson, on New Year's Day in 2004.

He was then 89, but his memory of those apples was quite clear. He did need some prompting at times. For example, he couldn't remember the name of one favorite apple, but when I suggested King of Tompkins County, his face lit up as he said "King" and went on to describe it with crisp detail. Dad died at Christmastime in 2010, and one of my favorite memories of his storytelling (and he told a lot of stories) was that day we had our conversation about the orchard.

Pictured to the left are my father and his sister Martha in the early 1920s, when the orchard would have been thriving.

Favorite Apples by Use (as remembered by my Dad)

• Favorites for eating out of hand: King, Baldwin, Grimes Golden, Sheepnose
• Favorites for baking and pies: Greening, Baldwin, Northern Spy, McIntosh
• Favorites for fresh applesauce: Yellow Transparent, Summer Rambo, Greening
• Most striking in appearance: Rome Beauty (bright red), York Imperial (a bit cock-eyed, it really stood out), Stayman (with its deep red blush covering a crimson red stripes over yellow), Wolf River (huge, but it was otherwise considered worthless)
• Best all-around: (but subject to debate even in his own family): Baldwin, King, Stayman, Northern Spy

Germantown
(Doctor of Germantown, Doctor)
USDA

Greening
(Northwestern Greening or Rhode Island
Greening?)
AA, NF, USDA

Wisconsin, before 1872
or
Rhode Island,
before 1700

Medium to Large.
Yellow

Jonathan
AA, NF, USDA

Small to medium.
Dark red

East Bloomfield, NY,
before 1800

Red stripes over yellow

Yellow green
with pink & red blush

Remembered fondly because it was one of the first apples to ripen in the summer, but it was strictly for home use. Highly flavored. Like other early apples, my grandmother used them for applesauce. Some apples must have kept long enough to overlap with the first of the pie apples, because my dad remembered that although his mother wouldn't make a pie of all Rambos, she liked to add some to give a pie extra flavor.

Although Dad called the apple the Rambo, I think because of its season it was a Summer Rambo, not another variety usually just called Rambo, but occasionally Winter Rambo. Both are very old apple varieties. The Summer Rambo, or Rambour d'Ete, is said to have originated in the village of Rambures in the Somme department in the region of Picardy, not far from the English Channel. The other Rambo was introduced before 1700 and possibly as early as 1640 by either Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, one of the original settlers of New Sweden, or one of his children or grandchildren. Since there is no written record of the variety before 1817, there is no way of telling. There is a record that Peter Gunnarsson Rambo brought fruit and garden seeds with him in a box, and from one of those seeds could have grown the first Rambo. I am related to Peter Gunnarsson Rambo through my father's mother's side of the family [The only reason for this digression].

Large. Red stripes
almost fully
cover yellow
green

Stayman
Winesap
AA, CF, USDA

York
Imperial
AA, CF, USDA

Yellow with red mottling

Red cheeked or blushed over yellow

Red shading over greenish-yellow

AA=Adam's Apples, an apple blogger from Massachusetts

CF= Century Farms Orchard, grower of heritage apple trees in North Carolina

GR= National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Geneva, NY

NF=National Fruit Collection in the UK

USDA= United States Department of Agriculture's Pomological Watercolors, a gallery of over 7500 technically accurate paintings, drawings, and lithographs created from 1889 to 1940. For most varieties, there are additional images are available on the National Library of Agriculture's Digital Collections.

This page was created and is maintained by: John Henderson, Sage Hen Farm, Lodi, NY.
Last modified: May 9, 2021, the 106th anniversary of my father's birth
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/apple.html