Vintage Virginia Apples

CANNON PEARMAIN is also called Cannon, Alpain and Anderson, as well as Red Cannon and Green Cannon. Likely, it originated in Virginia or North Carolina, and was noted in the 1804 Virginia Argus newspaper. In the early 20th century, it was grown commercially in Central Virginia. The ovate-shaped fruit has a greenish-yellow skin flushed with brick-red and striped with carmine. A long stem projects obliquely from the fruit. Medium to large in size, usually it is covered with yellow dots. The flesh is creamy yellow, crisp, juicy and coarse-grained, with a subacid flavor. An all-purpose dessert, culinary, and cider apple that stores exceptionally well, the best fruits grow at higher elevations in good soil. It bears full crops in alternate years. The limbs are very tough and seldom break, and the Cannon Pearmain will take rough handling without bruising. It ripens in October.