Adam's Apples

Centuries later, the name of Loammi Baldwin still echoes in pomological circles.  ¶  He did not discover the apple that bears his name, but cultivated and popularized it. The Baldwin apple is a treat, crisp and rich, once the most popular variety in New England.  ¶  Baldwin's great grandfather on his mother's side was Joseph Richardson, a second-generation immigrant who lived in Woburn, Massachusetts, 1643–1718. But Richardson had another descendant of even greater renown in the history and mythology of apples.

On a cheerful Wednesday in mid October, a friend and I took a detour on our way to farmers market and visited Baldwin Common in Wilmington, Massachusetts. There we paid our respects to the man who popularized the Baldwin apple.  ¶  Baldwin is a great apple , once the most celebrated in New England and perhaps America.  ¶  They are ripe in mid October. A farmer at our weekly market grows them.

This week marked the last of my Baldwins and Ashmead's Kernels. The Ashmead's were in top form this year, the Baldwins not so much but still worthwhile.

Many fine old apples come into their own in October.  Without planning to do so, I've been gorging on four varieties from my home state of Massachusetts. These are, clockwise from upper left:

Any day now the apple harvest will begin. The soon-to-be-picked apples— Lodi , Vista Bella —are recognizable on the tree. Most of the later season apples, at this point, look pretty much alike, unless you peer very closely. They are round, they are green, and they do not look ready to eat. But don't you think that baby Baldwin , above, is very like?

They are Suncrisp, Baldwin, and Topaz.

Once the king of American apples, this variety is named for the Revolutionary War hero who popularized it. Baldwins are crisp, hard, and richly flavored. They mellow in storage.

Fisticuffs! (Public domain image) In the 19th Century no less than seven New England communities professed to be the one true home of the original Baldwin apple tree.

Elaine Luck, a collector and dealer of vintage postcards, sent me this delightful image and asked me a question about it that I could not answer. Elaine wants to know the meaning of the card and the significance of "Miss Baldwin." She says the card, which was mailed in 1914, was part of a printed set of Halloween postcards.

A thoughtful reader asks whether the Baldwin Apple Monument I describe is the original. A second monument to the Baldwin apple would be, in some ways, more astonishing than the first. I picture an Edward Gorey tableau: two knots of Victorian gentlemen in a field, glaring at each other. That's fanciful of course, and I'm very interested to know the truth of it. The New York Times story I cite ("Monument to the Baldwin Apple," May 30 1895, p. 3) concludes The granite shaft which is to be erected by the Rumford Historical Association of Woburn is seven feet high, and is surmounted by a representation of the Baldwin apple. That describes today's monument, and corroborates its inscription ("erected in 1895..."). It is one that gives no hint of having replaced any earlier commemoration. The Boston Globe, which is the source of the Times article, notes there is an additional inscription on the ...

A few years ago quite by accident I came across this marvelous monument to the Baldwin Apple. This discovery was a complete surprise to me, though it's no great secret and has been standing here quietly for more than a century. This granite monument is about seven feet tall. You can imagine my delight to find it standing, unlooked for, by a field at the side of the road. I took this photo last fall, against just such a hopeful spring day as today. There are better photos, and some more information, at Wikipedia and Waymarking.com. The inscription reads as follows:

I finished the season in November with a stash of apples that I hoped would keep well: Baldwin, Golden Russet, Arkansas Black, and Blushing Golden. These varieties all have reputations as good keepers. Some are said to improve with age. Macoun: not exactly a keeper but in my rotation By supplementing them with supermarket Macouns that have been carefully stored, I have enjoyed an agreeable and varied apple diet. Rather than periodically revise my reviews of these fruits ("two months out and still crispy!"), here is how this experiment has fared.

The story of this antique apple is especially bound up in the place where I live in Massachusetts. Baldwin originated perhaps as early as the 1740s in an orchard a pleasant dozen miles' bicycle ride north of where my house sits today.  It was cultivated and popularized by Loammi Baldwin, a Revolutionary War colonel who was also the chief engineer of the Middlesex Canal. Any of the above might make a rewarding study, but I'll stick to apples. All the Baldwins I've seen this year are on the small side, so I am tasting a medium-sized apple with a saturated blush of cheerful red that mostly covers green yellow.