Hewe's Crabapple (Virginia crab)

The grower tells me that this old, and celebrated, cider apple is coming in at different stages of ripeness this year. The smaller, redder one at right is an outlier.

These are wider (perhaps an inch) than tall (three fourths), most with a wash of orange-tinted red blush over a pale greenish yellow.

The apples are glossy and somewhat ribbed. Their lenticel dots can barely be made out, and then only as green spots in the unblushed region. 

Hewe's long thin stems are blushed on the sunward side. They have the same coloring as the fruit! I have never noticed that before in an apple.

A cider apple does not need to prove its bona fides anyplace outside of the glass. Many are spitters eaten out of hand.

But that does not stop me.

Tasting the cider apple

Medium-grained yellow flesh opens with a bit of a spicy bitter kick, followed by a more vegetable flavor (squash?) that probably comes from the peel.

There is a moment of stone fruit sandwiched in between the two tastes.

Hewe's leaves a faint cinnamon taste in its wake. It browns rapidly

These are pretty interesting flavors, but I am not loving Hewe's as a snack.

It's as a cider apple where these unusual flavors can work their magic. Hewe's has proven its worth there since the 18th Century.

Orange Pippin Trees says Hewe's "produces a high quality clear juice which adds a dry flavor to cider blends."

The Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity says Hewe's is "a cross between North America’s native wild crab apple and an undetermined European variety" that "first appeared in northern Virginia in the first quarter of the 18th century."

Slow Food's detailed write-up of this variety, part of its Ark of Taste, is worth a read. Creighton Lee Calhoun also has a wealth of information; he notes that the apple may originally have been "Hughes' Crab."

Nurseryman Joel LaValley, of Amnicon Apples, thoughtfully provided these Hewe's with some new apples he is currently developing.