Best of the Best Lists
Below are lists of apples in various categories that are of special merit from Rowan Jacobson's book
Apples of Uncommon Character: 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little Known Wonders.
Use these lists to identify apples that are good candidates to add to your home orchard.
Apples of Uncommon Character: 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little Known Wonders.
Use these lists to identify apples that are good candidates to add to your home orchard.
Best of the Early Apples
Chenango Strawberry Ginger Gold Gravenstein (and Red Gravenstein) Red Astgrachan St. Lawrence Summer Rambo Yellow Transparent Best of the Dessert Apples (for fresh eating) Amrosia Autumn Crisp Blenheim Orang Blue Pearmain Burundy Chestnut Crab Claygate Pearmain Cox's Orange Pippin Empire Esopus Spitzenberg Fuji Gala Golden Delicious Granite Beauty Gray Pearmain Honeycrisp Hubbardston Nonesuch Hudson's Golden Gem James Grieve Karmijn de Sonnaville King of the Pippins Lamb Abbey Pearmain Macoun Mother Mutsu Nodhead Orleans Reinette Ozark Gold Pink Lady Pinova Pitmaston Pineapple Pixie Crunch Pomme Grise Reine des Reinettes Ribston Pippin Silken St. Edmun's Russet Sweet Sixteen Sweet Tango Tolman Sweet Wagener Wealthy Westfield Seek-No-Further |
Best of the Bakers & Saucers
Belle de Boskoop Bramley's Seedling Calville Blanc Courtland Glockenapfel Granny Smith Grimes Golden Jonagold Jonathan Kavanagh Maiden's Blush McIntosh Newtown Pippin Northern Spy Northwest Greening Porter Pound Sweet Rhode Island Greening Rome Beauty Smokehouse Snow Spokane Beauty Stayman Twenty Ounce Pippin Virginia Gold Wolf River York Imperial Zabeergau Reinette |
Best of the Keepers
Ananas Reinette Arkansas Black Ashmead's Kernel Ben Davis Bethel Black Oxford Black Twig Court Pendu Plat D'Arcy Spice GoldRush Keepsake Lady Williams Malinda Roxbury Russet Stark Virginia Winesap White Winter Pearmain Winesap Winter Sweet Paradise Yellow Bellflower Cider Fruit Dabinett Ellis Bitter Golden Harvey Golden Russet Harrison Harry Masters Jersey Hewes Crab Kingston Black Medaille d'Or Redfield Wickson Yates Oddballs (unique characteristics) Api Etoile Flower of Kent Hidden Rose Kandil Sinap Kazakh Wild Apples Knobbed Russet Lady Pink Pearl Red Delicious Sheepnose Winter Banana |
Tom Burford's Best of the Best List
Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks by Tom Burford
You will see overlap between the Rowan Jacobsen list and the Tom Burford lists of the best of the best. Between them they introduce us to the names of about two hundred fifty "worthy of planting" varieties of the huge number of varieties found in North America. Here are the apples on Tom's list:
American Beauty, American Summer Pearmain, Arkansas Black
Bailey Sweet, Baldwin, Ben Davis, Benham, Benoni, Bentley, Bethel, Bevan's Favorite, Black Gilliflower, Black Oxford, Black Twig, Blue Pearmain, Bottle Greening, Brushy Mountain Limbertwig, Buckingham, Burford Redflesh
Cameo, Carney Fork Limbertwig, Cannon Pearmain, Carter's Blue, Cauley, Cheese Apple, Chehalis, Chenago Strawberry, Chestnut Crab, Cole's Quince, Criterion, Crow Egg
Davey
Early Harvest, Early Joe, Empire, Esopus Spitzenburg
Fallawater, Fall Pippin, Fall Russet, Fall Wine, Fanny, Fortune, Freedom
Gano, Garden Royal, Gilpin, Ginger Gold, Gloria Mundi, Golden Delicious, Golden Nugget, Golden Russet, Goldrush, Granite Beauty, Gray Pearmain, Green Pippin, Grimes Golden
Haralson, Harrison, Hauer Pippin, Hawaii, Hawkeye, Hawley, Hidden Rose, Hog Sweet, Honey Cider, Honeycrisp, Hoople's Antique Gold, Hoover, Horse, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Hudson's Golden Gem, Hunt Russet, Huntsman, Hyslop
Idared, Ingram
Jefferis, Johnson's Fine Winter, Jonafree, Jonagold, Jonathan
Kearsarge, Keener Seedling, Keepsake, Kentucky Limbertwig, King David, Kinnaird's Choice
Liberty, Lodi, Lowry, Layman's Large Summer
Macoun, Magnum Bonum, Maiden Blush, McIntosh, Melba, Melon, Melrose, Milam, Milton, Missouri Pippin, Mollies Delicious, Monark, Mother
Newtown Pippin, Newtown Spitzenburg, Nickajack, Nittany, Nodhead, Northern Spy, Northfield Beauty, Northwest Greening, Nova Easygro
Ohio Nonpareil, Oliver, Opalescent, Ortley
Palouse, Parmar, Peck's Pleasant, Piloy, Pink Pearl, Pink Pearmain, Porter, Priscilla, Pristine, Pumpkin Russet, Pumpkin Sweet
Rainbow, Ralls, Ramsdell Sweet, Raven, Razor Russet, Red Butterscotch, Redfield, Redfree, Red Limbertwig, Red Winter Rearmain, Reverend Morgan, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty,Roxbury Russet, Rusty Coat
Scott Winter, Shiawassee, Shockley, Sierra Beauty, Skinner's Seedling, Smith Cider, Smokehouse, Spokane Beauty, Stark, Stayman, Strawberry Pippin, Stump, Summer Banana, Summer Champion, Summer Limbertwig, Summer Pearmain, Summer Rose, Sundance, Surprise, Sutton Beauty, Sweet Sixteen, Sweet Winesap, Swiss Limbertwig
Tenderskin, Tolman Sweet, Tompkins County King, Twenty Ounce
Victoria Limbertwig, Vine
Wagener, Waltana, Washington Strawberry, Wealthy, Western Beauty, Westfield Seek-No-Further, Wheeler's Golden Russet, Whitney Crab, Wickson Crab, Williams, Willow Twig, Winesap, Winter Rambo, Winder Sweet Paradise, Wolf River
Yates,Yellow Bellflower, York
Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks by Tom Burford
You will see overlap between the Rowan Jacobsen list and the Tom Burford lists of the best of the best. Between them they introduce us to the names of about two hundred fifty "worthy of planting" varieties of the huge number of varieties found in North America. Here are the apples on Tom's list:
American Beauty, American Summer Pearmain, Arkansas Black
Bailey Sweet, Baldwin, Ben Davis, Benham, Benoni, Bentley, Bethel, Bevan's Favorite, Black Gilliflower, Black Oxford, Black Twig, Blue Pearmain, Bottle Greening, Brushy Mountain Limbertwig, Buckingham, Burford Redflesh
Cameo, Carney Fork Limbertwig, Cannon Pearmain, Carter's Blue, Cauley, Cheese Apple, Chehalis, Chenago Strawberry, Chestnut Crab, Cole's Quince, Criterion, Crow Egg
Davey
Early Harvest, Early Joe, Empire, Esopus Spitzenburg
Fallawater, Fall Pippin, Fall Russet, Fall Wine, Fanny, Fortune, Freedom
Gano, Garden Royal, Gilpin, Ginger Gold, Gloria Mundi, Golden Delicious, Golden Nugget, Golden Russet, Goldrush, Granite Beauty, Gray Pearmain, Green Pippin, Grimes Golden
Haralson, Harrison, Hauer Pippin, Hawaii, Hawkeye, Hawley, Hidden Rose, Hog Sweet, Honey Cider, Honeycrisp, Hoople's Antique Gold, Hoover, Horse, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Hudson's Golden Gem, Hunt Russet, Huntsman, Hyslop
Idared, Ingram
Jefferis, Johnson's Fine Winter, Jonafree, Jonagold, Jonathan
Kearsarge, Keener Seedling, Keepsake, Kentucky Limbertwig, King David, Kinnaird's Choice
Liberty, Lodi, Lowry, Layman's Large Summer
Macoun, Magnum Bonum, Maiden Blush, McIntosh, Melba, Melon, Melrose, Milam, Milton, Missouri Pippin, Mollies Delicious, Monark, Mother
Newtown Pippin, Newtown Spitzenburg, Nickajack, Nittany, Nodhead, Northern Spy, Northfield Beauty, Northwest Greening, Nova Easygro
Ohio Nonpareil, Oliver, Opalescent, Ortley
Palouse, Parmar, Peck's Pleasant, Piloy, Pink Pearl, Pink Pearmain, Porter, Priscilla, Pristine, Pumpkin Russet, Pumpkin Sweet
Rainbow, Ralls, Ramsdell Sweet, Raven, Razor Russet, Red Butterscotch, Redfield, Redfree, Red Limbertwig, Red Winter Rearmain, Reverend Morgan, Rhode Island Greening, Rome Beauty,Roxbury Russet, Rusty Coat
Scott Winter, Shiawassee, Shockley, Sierra Beauty, Skinner's Seedling, Smith Cider, Smokehouse, Spokane Beauty, Stark, Stayman, Strawberry Pippin, Stump, Summer Banana, Summer Champion, Summer Limbertwig, Summer Pearmain, Summer Rose, Sundance, Surprise, Sutton Beauty, Sweet Sixteen, Sweet Winesap, Swiss Limbertwig
Tenderskin, Tolman Sweet, Tompkins County King, Twenty Ounce
Victoria Limbertwig, Vine
Wagener, Waltana, Washington Strawberry, Wealthy, Western Beauty, Westfield Seek-No-Further, Wheeler's Golden Russet, Whitney Crab, Wickson Crab, Williams, Willow Twig, Winesap, Winter Rambo, Winder Sweet Paradise, Wolf River
Yates,Yellow Bellflower, York