Apple, Albemarle Pippin

Planted in honor of Fair Pickel, JLMH Board.

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Purchased from Monticello’s garden shop.

Below is the information sent directly from Monticello about this variety:

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“Medium-sized, deciduous fruit tree.

Fruit ripens late in autumn as the skin turns an olive green. The flesh is greenish-white, juicy, crisp, and with a fine aroma.

Prefers full sun and moderately rich, well-drained soil. Self-pollinates but fruits best with a pollinator.

Grows 14 to 16 feet in height. Grafted on MM111 rootstock.

USDA Zones 5 through 9. [Raleigh is Zone 7]

‘Albemarle Pippin’, which originated in Newton, New York in the 1700s, was one of Thomas Jefferson’s two favorite apples, the other being ‘Esopus Spitzenburg’. He planted as many as 50 pippins in the South Orchard at Monticello between 1769 and 1814. Benjamin Franklin reputedly introduced the variety into England, as an example of a superior American fruit variety, and in the 19th century Queen Victoria fancied the fruit so much as to exempt Virginia-grown apples from an import tariff. The pippin stores well in a cool cellar or refrigerator and the mouth-watering flavors improve with storage.”

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Here is a 2018 from the Washington Post about the history of the Albemarle Pippin.