Egremont Russet

In his wonderful 2021 book, Odd Apples, William Mullan writes about how his love affair with apples began, “…it was the Egremont Russet that caught my eye, with its particularly funny moniker and even more peculiar resemblance to a gold-sprayed potato. …I can remember feeling completely compelled to buy several pounds of Egremont Russet without ever having tasted it. On the way home, I ate one, and you could say it was love at first bite…”

Egremont Russet is a high quality, highly-prized, English dessert cultivar that probably originated at Petworth, the estate of Lord Egremont, in Sussex, England sometime before 1872 (although Hogg did not list it in his 1884 Fruit Manual). It was probably introduced by the famous nurseryman, John Scott whose extensive 1873 catalog, Scott's Orchardist; or Catalogue of Fruits, Cultivated at Merriott, Somerset, continues to be valuable for English and American apple historians. Egremont was probably first introduced to the U.S. by South Meadow Nurseries in Michigan in the early 1990’s.

Although it is nearly impossible to find at farm stands in the US, Egremont is still available in markets in the UK, and it’s also become popular in Australia and New Zealand. Every year a friend from Melbourne, Australia sends us a picture of the Egremonts that he buys from the one market stall that offers them. It is the fleeting highlight of his fruit year. “I cleaned out the organic fruit stall at the market - this is the last of this year's crop..Since I eat 4-6 apples a day (including cores but excluding the sticks), this will last a few days only.”

As Simon attests, Egremont Russet is excellent for fresh eating. The small to medium-sized, roundish fruit is entirely covered with russet. The flesh is firm, and the skin is easy to chew. The complex flavors are well balanced and have hints of lemon and mint. It ripens later than St. Edmond’s Russet but earlier than Roxbury and the Golden Russet types. We harvest our fruit about October 15 here in central Maine. The fruit keeps a month or so, but should be used up by mid-December.

We received our Egremont scionwood in about 1995 from a member of North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX). Currently growing at Super Chilly Farm.