Vintage Virginia Apples

WHITNEY CRAB is a greenish-yellow skin apple with red blush and stripes. It has a subacid flavor with a slight astringency, and the flesh is juicy and yellow. Whitney Crab will grow from 1 to 2 inches in diameter and contains 11.39% sugar that will ferment to 5+% alcohol in cider production. Even when the tree is young, it will bear heavy crops. Growth is upright and the blossoms are pink and white. Beach in Apples of New York, 1905, wrote: "One of the most popular of the large crabapples, particularly in the West and North. The fruit is attractive, yellow, striped with lively red, subacid, good for dessert and very good for culinary uses. The tree is a thrifty, upright grower, comes into bearing young and is very productive. Originated with A. R. Whitney, Franklin Grove, Illinois…described by Warder as early as 1869. Flesh yellowish, crisp, juicy, mild subacid or nearly sweet with slight crabapple flavor. Good to very good." It ripens in August.