Vintage Virginia Apples

RED DELICIOUS (HAWKEYE) ripens in September. The most popular and widely-grown apple in the United States, there are more than 300 variations of this apple under cultivation. A chance seedling found in 1872 on the farm of Jesse Hiatt of Peru, Iowa, in a known variety orchard, it was deliberately chopped down twice and then permitted to grow and fruit. It grew near a Yellow Bellflower, which is speculated to be its maternal parent, and the other parent is speculated to be the Black Gilliflower or Sheepnose. Hiatt decided to promote it as a new variety and originally named it Hawkeye. In 1893, he sent it to a competition sponsored by Stark Brothers Nursery. The paper of identification was lost, but Hiatt re-entered it in 1894, and Stark bought the rights to propagate it and renamed it Red Delicious. The Hawkeye is more striped and less pointed-nosed than modern cultivars, and some claim the flavor of the original is superior. The Standard Delicious is a green-skinned dessert apple with red stripes, elongated and red in color. Its white flesh is tender, fine-grained, crisp and juicy. The flavor is mild, and the aroma is distinctive. It is resistant to fireblight and cedar apple rust. Ripens in September.