Rolfe

In about 1810 Betsy Houston planted a small handful of Blue Pearmain seeds on her land in what was then known as Moorestown (later to be called Abbot) in Piscataquis County, Maine. By the time her seedlings were large enough to transplant, Betsy had moved away, and a retired Revolutionary War soldier named Jeremiah Rolfe had purchased the property. That would have been about 1820. Rolfe gave twelve of the seedlings to the Rev. Thomas Macomber of nearby Guilford who kept eleven for himself and passed along the twelfth to his son who planted it next door. That tree grew up to bear exceptional fruit. By the time it did, the good Rev. Macomber had taken possession of his son's farm.  Perhaps his son had died or moved away; we don’t know. But we do know the fruit was good and became popular throughout much of central and southern Maine. For some years the variety was known as Macomber, but gradually it became more commonly called Rolfe or Coreless, due to its relatively small core size. The tree from which we obtained our scionwood was an old specimen at Sweetser's Orchard in Cumberland Center, near Portland.  That tree has since died. Before it did, we grafted several young trees for the Sweetsers who replanted a row in their orchard.

Rolfe fruit is typically large to very large, roundish, somewhat blocky, and mostly blushed a muted red. There is often a splash of russet surrounding the stem. Its indistinct stripes blend into the blush. The basin is characteristically large and deep, and the calyx is open. It’s a good, subacid, culinary apple.  It bakes well,  softening but keeping its shape. It also cooks up into a nice sauce. In 2013 Cammy awarded it the coveted title of “Best Sauce Apple of the Season”. We’ve never tried it in a pie though intuition suggests it would be good.