Royal Sweet
Royal Sweet ripens in mid-September and reddens as the nights turn colder.
The only place we have ever found this sweet apple is on a massive, ancient apple tree growing at Rollins Orchard in Garland, Maine. When John visited Rollins Orchard in October 2014, Ernest Rollins took him up the hill behind his farm to see an apple tree that measures 60 feet across and 180 feet around . We think that it may be the original Royal Sweet as depicted in the famous USDA watercolors of the early 20th c. The specimens for the painting were sent to Washington DC by J.M. Stone from Garland in the fall of 1894. If they came from the Rollins’ tree, it was already a big old tree by then .
The fruit is small-medium sized, roundish-oblate, and mostly covered with soft, red stripes and blush. It takes a few cold fall nights in a row to entice the Royal Sweet to redden up. The sweet, low-acid flesh has a touch of tartness to keep it from being insipid like so many other sweet apples. Ernest Rollins says the only way to eat it is fresh, but a subtle hint of bitterness makes us think it might be a good addition to sweet or fermented cider.
Ernest Rollins and John Bunker beneath the massive Royal Sweet tree at Rollins Orchard in Garland, ME. The diameter of the trunk is larger than the two of them side by side.