Bibliography – Heirloom Apples Our Favorite Books

Here are some of the titles we return to again and again to refresh our memories on fruits tart and sweet when we are lacking fruits to eat.

We are very careful with two collectible and historic guides to apples:

The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America; the culture, propagation, and management, in the garden and orchard, of fruit trees generally; with descriptions of all the finest varieties of fruit, native and foreign, cultivated in this country by A.J. Downing and corresponding member of the Royal Botanic Society of London; and of the horticultural societies of Berlin; the Low Countries; Massachusetts; Pennsylvania; Indiana; Cincinati, etc. – now that’s a mouthful!

The Apples of New York, Volumes I and II, S.A. Beach assisted by N.O. Booth and O.M. Taylor, Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1903.

More contemporary books are noted below.

Our two favorite sources are listed first.

The New Book of Apples by Joan Morgan, Alison Richards, and Elisabeth Dowle.  Their publisher, Ebury Press, calls it “the definitive guide to apples, including over 2,000 varieties.

When we can’t find what we are looking for in The New Book of Apples, we grab

Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory edited by Kent Whealy and published by Seed Savers Exchange of Decorah, Iowa.  We have the third edition published in 2001 and know we need to upgrade soon.

Old Southern Apples by Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr.  The revised and expanded edition is published by Chelsea Green.

Also by Chelsea Green, Michael Phillips The Apple Grower, A Guide for the Organic Orchardist.  We do not own a second book by Phillips, The Holistic Orchard:  Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way, but imagine it is just as good as the first.

A cute little book with great drawings and descriptions of heirloom apples is by Roger Yepsen and simply titled Apples. W.W. Norton & Company published this book in 1994 but it is still a treasure.

A new book on our desk is The Illustrated World Encyclopedia of Apples:  A comprehensive guide to over 400 varieties accompanied by 60 scrumptious recipes by Andrew Mikolajski and published by Lorenz books.

Apple of Your Pie:  A Collection of Apple Pie Recipes and the History of Apple Growing in America by Eileen Maher Kronauer and Charles Kronauer.  We found a copy of this interesting book of apples at a sweet little restaurant called Ariana’s in Orford, New Hampshire.

The Apple Source Book; particular uses for diverse apples by Sue Clifford and Angela King with Philippa Davenport, Common Ground

Another fun Common Ground book – Apple Games and Customs.

Orchards written by Claire Masset is great little book – we hope to have it and a sister book, Making Craft Cider,  put out by Shire Publications for sale at the farm stand.

 Apples; history, folklore, horticulture, and gastronomy by Peter Wynne, Hawthorn Books

Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention, A Gardeners Guide by Lee Reich, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

Grow Your Own Fruit, Carol Klein with Simon Akeroyd and Lucy Halsall, an imprint of Octopus Books/Mitchell Beazley

 Apple Pie; An American Story, John T. Edge, G.P. Putnam Son’s

 An Apple Harvest, recipes and orchard lore by Frank Browning and Sharon Silva, Ten Speed Press

The Origins of Fruit & Vegetables, Jonathan Roberts, Universe

 Apples by Frank Browning, North Point Press

The Fruit Hunters; A story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession by Adam Leith Gollner, Scribner

The Apple Book, Rosanne Sanders, Philosophical Library,  New York in association with The Royal Horticultural Society

Apples, A Cookbook, Quantum Books Ltd

Pomologia from Netherlands/Germany/France/England by Johann Hermann Knoop, 1758 (reprinted FKG)

Burcombes, Queenies and Colloggetts by Virginia Spiers and illustrated by Mary Martin published by West Brendon

Gardener Cook by Christopher Lloyd, Willow Creek Press

 A is for Apple, Greg Patent and Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Broadway Books

 Homegrown Fruit, Mimi Luebbermann, Chronicle Books

The Orchard, A Memoir by Adele Crockett Robertson – a truly wonderful book about tough times, Bantam

Henry David Thoreau, Wild Fruits, W.W. Norton and Company

 The American Apple Orchard, F.A. Waugh, 1911

 The Fruit Garden, A Treatise, P. Barry, 1862

Lipincott’s Farm Manuals – Productive Orcharding by Fred C. Sears, 1914

Please check our post on hard and sweet cider titles.

Please ask Jane Booth for permission to reproduce her copyrighted photographs and/or writing. Email jane.booth.1@gmail.com or call (802) 258-3971.   Jane has spent a good part of her career photographing and writing about gardens and small farms for Gardens Illustrated, Yankee Magazine, Country Living, Country Living Gardens, Better Homes & Gardens, New Old House Journal, and Cape Cod & Islands Home where she produced an ongoing column and feature stories.

 

Bibliography: Sweet and Hard Cider

We love the sweet heirloom apple cider we make at Landmark Trust USA’s Scott Farm.  The blend of apples changes with the ripening of our heirloom varieties at our orchard in Dummerston, Vermont.

We are lucky to have friend and fellow Vermonter, Jason McArthur, teach a hard cider workshop each fall at Scott Farm’s historic apple packing barn.  Contact Landmark Trust USA’s Scott Farm, kellyc@landmarktrustusa.org, for workshop dates for next fall and in the meantime we recommend you add cider books to your own library!

Making Craft Cider:  A Ciderist’s Guide put out by Shire Publications and written by Simon McKie

We have a signed copy of Cider, Hard and Sweet:  History, Traditions, and Making Your Own by Ben Watson published here in Vermont at Countryman Press.

Annie Proulx and Lew Nichols wrote Cider:  Making, Using, and Enjoying Sweet and Hard Cider.  Our third edition was published by Storey.

The American Cider Book, The Story of America’s Natural Beverage by Vrest Orton.  Our copy has been well thumbed and shows signs of age.

Please ask Jane Booth for permission to reproduce her copyrighted photographs and/or writing. Email jane.booth.1@gmail.com or call (802) 258-3971.   Jane has spent a good part of her career photographing and writing about gardens and small farms for Gardens Illustrated, Yankee Magazine, Country Living, Country Living Gardens, Better Homes & Gardens, New Old House Journal, and Cape Cod & Islands Home where she produced an ongoing column and feature stories.

 

Quince – A Versatile Fruit

While much of the orchard is planted with apples, one will find—beyond the rows of Baldwin, Orleans Reinette, and D’Arcy Spice—small, graceful quince trees with fuzzy-backed leaves. Quince, which is related to the apple and the pear has similar scent and flavor profile with overtones of guava and maybe  hints of pineapple depending on the variety.

Quince brighten the orchard

When fully ripened, quince may scent a room, and they are a treat to eat, whether poached, roasted, pureed or baked. But they are never ever eaten raw, as they have a hard, gritty, grainy, astringent flesh.

My husband, David Tansey, and I take frequent walks through the orchard, and from bud until harvest, we like to keep an eye on the development of the quince, delighting in the tightly furled, pink buds that untwist into crimson-veined, cup-shaped blossoms.

Tightly furled quince flowers

The flowers of edible quince are a beautiful sight in May 

The immature fruits are covered in a beige-pink, felt-like skin that turns green as the fruits size. By October the quince take on a sunny, golden yellow color, and whether the variety is pear-shaped or flattened and round, they brighten the orchard at midday and lend a glow in the early evening.

Quince (Cydonia oblonga), a native of Persia, have been cultivated for over 4,000 years. Searching for quince lore we read about paintings of Venus depicted holding this fruit of love and happiness in her right hand, and it is quite possible that it was quince and not apple that got Adam’s Eve into trouble.

Quince come in various shapes and sizes

Quince paste, so thick you can cut it with a knife, is a traditional food in the Mediterranean. The Portuguese call it marmelada, the Spanish membrillo, and in Sicily everyone gets into the act when quince are ripe to make cotognata. It is delicious with sharp or creamy cheeses, a treat on morning toast, or as a sweet end to a meal.

Richard “Lionel” Henry holding a bushel box of just picked quince

Below is a recipe for poached quince. But one of the easiest ways to prepare quince is to toss unpeeled, cored chunks of it into the roasting pan alongside freshly harvested carrots, chopped lovage, onion and a leg of lamb. We do the same when roasting a chicken, deglazing the pan with white white, or better yet, Calvados, to make a sublime juice to drizzle over the meat and vegetables. This year we will surely add quince to the preparation of our Christmas goose.

POACHED QUINCE

 2 medium quince

1/4 to 1 cup sugar, or to taste (sugar is needed to alter the astringency)

 Rub quince under running water to remove any fuzz. Cut in quarters or eighths, leaving skin and core intact (they add additional levels of flavor and pectin). Put in pot with water to cover, along with the sugar. Bring to boil then simmer slowly. The quince should be soft after 30 minutes and can be used as is, or add a tad more water if needed and poach them for two more hours; they will turn a pale pink, and if you have patience, simmer them a bit longer to coax them into a beautiful ruby hew. Cool the poached fruit, remove the seeds and core, and add pieces to an apple pie or Tarte Tatin, or serve on ice cream or yogurt. Don’t toss out the syrup, as the resulting elixir is good for the throat.

This story was originally published in one of our favorite magazines on Vermont food and farming, Local Banquet

Please ask Jane Booth for permission to reproduce her copyrighted photographs and/or writing. Email jane.booth.1@gmail.com or call (802) 866-3329.   Jane has spent a good part of her career photographing and writing about gardens and small farms for Gardens Illustrated, Yankee Magazine, Country Living, Country Living Gardens, Better Homes & Gardens, New Old House Journal, and Cape Cod & Islands Home where she produced an ongoing column and feature stories.  

David Tansey is the founder of The Landmark Trust USA and past president of Landmark and The Scott Farm, both located in Dummerston, Vermont.  He was involved in every step of revitalizing The Landmark Trust USA and Scott Farm properties.