'Baldwin' | |
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Hybrid parentage | Chance seedling |
Cultivar | 'Baldwin' |
Origin | Massachusetts, United States, around 1740 |
The Baldwin apple is a bright red winter apple, very good in quality, and easily shipped. It was for many years[ when? ] the most popular apple in New England, New York, and for export from the United States of America. No apple in the vicinity of Boston was so popular as Baldwin. [1] It has also been known as 'Calville Butter', 'Felch', 'Late Baldwin', 'Pecker', 'Red Baldwin's Pippin', 'Steele's Red Winter', and 'Woodpecker'. [2]
The Baldwin was one of four apples honored by the United States Postal Service in a 2013 set of four 33¢ stamps commemorating historic strains, joined by Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith. [3]
According to local tradition, the apple was found near Wood Hill by William Butters (1711-1784), grandson of Will Butter, first white settler in what is now Wilmington, Massachusetts. William Butters raised the tree in his yard, near the present Baldwin Apple Monument (pictured).
According to S. A. Beach's Apples of New York, the Baldwin originated soon after 1740 as a chance seedling on the farm of Mr. John Ball of Wilmington, Massachusetts, and for about 40 years thereafter its cultivation was confined to that immediate neighborhood. [2] The farm later came into the possession of a Mr. Butters, who gave the name Woodpecker to the apple because the tree was frequented by woodpeckers. Deacon Samuel Thompson, a surveyor of Woburn, Massachusetts, brought it to the attention of Col. Loammi Baldwin, who propagated it and more widely introduced it in eastern Massachusetts. From Col. Baldwin's interest in the variety it came to be called the Baldwin.
A monument to the Baldwin apple now stands on today's Chestnut street in Wilmington. The monument's inscription reads: This monument marks the site of the first Baldwin Apple Tree found growing wild near here. It fell in the gale of 1815. The apple first known as the Butters, Woodpecker or Pecker apple was named after Col. Loammi Baldwin of Woburn. Erected in 1895 by the Rumford Historical Association.
A harsh winter in 1934 wiped out many of the Baldwin apple orchards in New England. [4] Its popularity as an eating apple waned, but some orchards were preserved for many years because of its desirability as a mixing apple for cider. However, the orchards have not been replaced when they played out. Baldwin Apples, unlike many apples, have long been prized for the making of hard cider. "West County Cider" makes Baldwin Cider from trees planted in the early 1900s. It is their most popular cider. [5] Typical size width 81-89 mm, height 63-79 mm, stalk 19-22 mm. [6] [7] [8] It is an exceptionally hard apple and would remain remarkably free from blemishes and other blights with few pesticides being needed. Because of its hardness it shipped well without bruising and for a time was prized for this quality. Aside from cider making it was also known as an exceptionally good pie apple and due to its inherent hardness would maintain more crispness through the baking process than other apples would.
Essex County, New Jersey, in the time of the Dutch, was also well known for its apple groves and cider, connected with the Bauldwin family. (John Sr. & Jr., signers of the Newark Agreement,~1667, per Arny in Red Lion Rampant)
Baldwins were once the most popular apples in the United States but have largely fallen out of existence with the introduction of the Red Delicious. While not extinct, they are very difficult to find in stores. Some trees can still be found wild in abandoned orchards in New England, notably in Vermont.
New England cuisine is an American cuisine which originated in the New England region of the United States, and traces its roots to traditional English cuisine and Native American cuisine of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Niantic, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, and other native peoples. It also includes influences from Irish, French, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine, among others. It is characterized by extensive use of potatoes, beans, dairy products and seafood, resulting from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry. Corn, the major crop historically grown by Native American tribes in New England, continues to be grown in all New England states, primarily as sweet corn although flint corn is grown as well. It is traditionally used in hasty puddings, cornbreads and corn chowders.
Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located 9 miles (14 km) north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of government, in which an elected mayor is the executive and a partly district-based, partly at-large city council is the legislature. It is the only one of Massachusetts' 351 municipalities to refer to members of its City Council as "Aldermen."
Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple. It is one of the 15 most popular apple cultivars in the United States. It is not closely related to Red Delicious.
Wilmington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Its population was 23,349 at the 2020 United States census.
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Cider apples are a group of apple cultivars grown for their use in the production of cider. Cider apples are distinguished from "cookers" and "eaters", or dessert apples, by their bitterness or dryness of flavour, qualities which make the fruit unpalatable but can be useful in cidermaking. Some apples are considered to occupy more than one category.
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Colonel Loammi Baldwin was a noted American engineer, politician, and a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.
The Baldwin House, also known as the Loammi Baldwin Mansion, is a Colonial American mansion located in Woburn, Massachusetts. On October 7, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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In the United States, the definition of cider is broader than in Europe. There are two types: one is the traditional fermented product, called hard cider, and the second is sweet or soft cider.However, in some regions, cider is the alcoholic version, whether made from apples or pears, and apple cider is the non-alcoholic version.
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