According to legend, John Chapman spent a year in Olean before moving west to become Johnny Appleseed, and I had a vague idea of doing a piece on the various apple varieties that had been developed in New York state.

*Then I discovered that there were at least 123 of them by 1905, and plenty more since.

*So let’s look at JUST a few! The earliest varieties often arose naturally and accidentally, and by 1750 or so the Newtown Pippin had appeared on Long Island, in Queens. The Encyclopedia of New York State describes it as “the first widely known American apple variety.” Presidents Washington and Jefferson raised the Newtown on their plantations, and it has a small commercial market to this day.

*Jefferson also grew the Esopus Spitzenberg, discovered in Ulster County. The Wagener was discovered right here on Keuka Lake, near Penn Yan, around 1795 – you can see the Wagener Mansion on the Bluff as you drive up northward on State Route 54. Dutch farmers in the Hudson Valley developed (or discovered) the Swaar.

*If you look very carefully on a country lane near East Bloomfield you may find a small low monument to the Northern Spy, which was discovered near there in the early 1800s. Esopus and Swaar, like the Newtown, are essentially heirloom varieties today, but Wagener and Northern Spy are grown on larger scales. Perhaps none of these early varieties is what eaters today prefer for raw apples, but they’re all used for cooking and for cider.

*Once the State Agricultural Research Station was set up in Geneva, new varieties were developed purposefully, on scientific and commercial bases. We can thank the Research Station for the Cortland apple (1898-1915), developed as a good eating apple and named for the nearby county. The Lodi (1924) was named for the town and village in Seneca County. The Empire (1966, named for the Empire State) was developed as an eating apple… “ideal” for the lunchbox, says Wikipedia, “not least because it does not bruise easily.”

*New Yorkers also took the lead in other aspects of apple cultivation. The 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo provided an opportunity to test 345 varieties (all that were being grown in the state at that time) to see how each responded to the brand-new field of cold storage. Scientists at Cornell worked on “controlled atmosphere” storage in 1930s and ’40s.

*Of the top 18 varieties being cultivated in New York in 1904, five of them – the Northern Spy, the Golden Russet, the Espous Spitzenberg, the Twenty Ounce, and the Swaar – were all developed in New York, with the Tompkins King and the Tolman Sweet as possibles.

*By 2000, the top 18 included seven native New Yorkers: the Empire, the Cortland, the Macoun, the Twenty Ounce, the Northern Spy, and the Jonagold. Also in 2000, New York was America’s second state in apple production, behind only Washington. Our 695 apple farms grew almost 24 million bushels, for cider, juice, cooking, saucing, and eating.

*According to www.applesfromny.com (a cool site), within 25 miles of Bath you can get heirloom apples at Crooked Line Farm in Bath, Joseph’s Wayside Market in Naples, Barrington Heirloom Orchard near Penn Yan, and Reisenger’s Apple Country in Watkins Glen. But you don’t need to get all “artisinal” to enjoy an apple – just grab whichever type YOU like, and don’t worry about being fashionable. Happy crunching!