Porter

Porter originated on the farm of the Reverend Samuel Porter (1709-1758) in Sherborn Mass. (The town was initially spelled Sherburne in 1674, probably after Henry Sherburne, who served as Associate Judge of the Court at Strawberry Bank from 1651–52. The spelling was changed to "Sherborn" in 1852.) As the story goes, the magnificently beautiful, yellow apple only became popular after Porter's death when others, including a Mr. Sauger--or Sanger--recognized its value and popularized the apple, naming it after the Reverend Porter. Sauger could possibly be Porter's contemporary, Capt. Samuel Sanger (1735-1822) or one of Samuel Sanger's sons, Samuel (1764-1851), Calvin (1768-1835) or Joseph (1791-1867) all of whom lived in Sherburne. In any event, one of these Sangers would have been the right age to have become enamored with Samuel Porter's apple.

The assessment was correct. Porter became extremely popular throughout much of New England, well up into central Maine. The first record of Porter trees in the state is 1828. By 1863 it was the most popular fall apple in Maine. We still find old Porter trees every year.

The fruit resembles Golden Delicious in shape and coloring but not in flavor or use. It is an excellent late summer-early fall all-purpose cooking apple. Henry Ward Beecher wrote, "Who would make jelly of any other apple, that had the Porter?" In 1896 Fanny Farmer wrote about canning apples, "Wipe, quarter, core, and pare Porter apples, then weigh. Make a syrup by boiling for ten minutes one-third their weight in sugar with water, allowing two and one-half cups to each pound of sugar. Cook apples in syrup until soft, doing a few at a time. Fill jars, following Directions for Canning." Henry Sanders wrote in his recollections of a farm boy, "In the old orchard [in Livermore, Maine] was a Porter tree, with a white, sour apple shaped like a pigs nose. It was a general purpose apple, but not a great favorite." (Different strokes for different folks?)

Our Porter scionwood came to us directly from Dowse orchards in Sherborn. According to the Dowse family, their scionwood came from the original seedling tree in Samuel Porter's yard.