Esopus Spitzenburg

Esopus Spitzenburg (correct pronunciation is most likely "e-SOAP-us SPIT-zen-berg") originated in Esopus, New York sometime before 1776. Although it is forever damned to be pigeon-holed as Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple, it vastly prefers New York and New England to Virginia. And Jefferson is not the only person who is a fan of this apple - for over than two hundred years “Spitz” has been a choice dessert and culinary variety, mentioned in nearly every list of best apples. Herman Melville wrote in his 1853 Bartleby, the Scrivener," Copying law-papers being proverbially a dry, husky sort of business, my two scriveners were fain to moisten their mouths very often with Spitzenburgs, to be had at the numerous stalls nigh the Custom House and Post Office”.

The flavor is slightly subacid, crisp and juicy, an excellent acid source for sweet or fermented cider. It cooks up quickly into a somewhat coarse, slightly tart, very good quality sauce. In central Maine the fruit ripens in mid-fall, a bit earlier than the Spys, Baldwins and Black Oxfords. The medium-large, round-conic fruit is almost entirely covered with a blush of bright-to-slightly dull red, covered with russet dots, notably small and round towards the basin and elongated towards the cavity. The tree itself is moderately vigorous with easily trained, wide-angle branches. It is moderately susceptible to scab though we have never sprayed ours with fungicides, and the fruit has been great.