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 obtained his trees from a traveling entrepreneur selling bare-root whip orchard packages that included more than a dozen varieties. It is possible, however, that he received the bare root trees in a mail order. There were many competing fruit tree nurseries in those days, many, large and small, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, especially. My father tells me that ordering from the Peter Henderson seed catalog was a long family tradition, even though Peter Henderson, a well known and well respected horticulturalist in his day, is not related to my Henderson family. I can find no evidence, however, that the company sold bare root trees.

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, called it their Johnny Appleseed tree. Perhaps it was not in jest, since Johnny Appleseed would have been traveling in or near those parts about the number of years ago as the age of the tree. 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 maintained his father's original orchard and made significant changes, 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. More than fourteen varieties grew in the orchard, but those varieties of apples that were poor keeping and didn't sell out in season were cooked, canned, or dried, and not stored in the apple cave.

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. More than 75 years later, when I interviewed my dad, he was still able to remember not just the names of the apples but also their qualities and descriptions.

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 mechanical refrigeration and controlled atmosphere storage, an apple's natural keeping quality was an even more important quality. 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 it didn't matter. 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. His son Cree Hood continued his father's orchard. Many years later 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 and money trying to revive and expand the old orchard. They also constructed a commercial cider press. My father thought they sold fruit and cider for about five years starting in 1946. One year their trees survived a frost when most other orchards in the area did not, and they made quite a sizeable profit. Their last year of commercial apple growing began with an abundant blossoming. Encouraged by prospects that a good harvest might finally make the orchard pay, a late frost killed off the blossoms and my uncles's hopes. They both found "second jobs," and gave up on the orchard as a principle source of income. I have a faint childhood memory of a family gathering at a cider mill, but if the cider operation was discontinued in 1951, I would not have been old enough to witness it. What I remember most about the cider pressing is being teased about worms being crushed into the cider. The orchard went into decline and was eventually torn out to make more room for pasture.

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 principly 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 had a lot of stories) was that day we talked about the orchard.

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
• Best looking: Rome Beauty, York Imperial (even though some were a bit cock-eyed), Stayman Winesap, Wolf River (which was otherwise considered worthless)
• Best all-around: (but subject to debate even in his own family): Baldwin, King, Stayman Winesap, Northern Spy

Germantown
(Doctor of Germantown, Doctor)

Greening
(Rhode Island
Greening?)
AA, NF, VV

Medium to Large.
Yellow

Jonathan
AA, DW, NF, VV

Small to medium.
Dark red

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 more for home use. Highly flavored. My grandmother liked to use 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, rather than the Summer Rambo, this variety is different from another apple called the Rambo. Also called the Winter Rambo, the Rambo was introduced before 1700 either by 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 the nineteenth century, there is no way of telling. There is a record that the first Rambo brought fruit tree and garden seeds with him in a box. Through my father's mother's side of the family, the Rambos were among our ancestors [The only reason for this digression]. In contrast, the Summer Rambo is thought to be of French origin and the original spelling was Rambour. 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.

Large. Red stripes
almost fully
cover yellow
green

Stayman
Winesap
AA, CF, DW, VV

York
Imperial
CF, HH, VV

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

DW=Dave Wilson Nursery, a California-based grower of fruit and nut trees for commercial and retail nurseries

HH=Hidden Hollow Orchard and Wildlife Preserve

NF=National Fruit Collection in the UK

VT=Vermont Apples

VV=Vintage Virginia Apples

This page was created and is maintained by: John Henderson, Sage Hen Farm, Lodi, NY.
Last modified: What is normally cider pressing time, 2012
http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/apple.html