Northern Spy Apple
Estimated Inventory, lb : 0
Description/Taste
The Northern Spy apple is a medium sized apple with a light pink or red blushed skin with streaks of yellow and pale green. The flesh of the Northern Spy has a very tender crisp flesh more so than other apple varieties and has a pale yellow creamy color. The Northern Spy apple offers an especially tart flavor, but has a cider-quality freshness. The Northern Spy apples also offers undertones of sweet pear.
Seasons/Availability
Northern Spy apples are available starting in the early fall.
Current Facts
The Northern Spy is a naturally vigorous variety which will produce a relatively large tree, however while it is a hardy grower, it can take longer than most apple varieties to come into bearing. Known for its winter hardiness, Northern Spy apples can be stored up to three months in a cool dry place lasting well into early spring.
Geography/History
The Northern Spy apple tree was first planted in the early 1800s by Herman Chaplin in an East Bloomfield, New York orchard using seeds from Salisbury, Connecticut. Though this tree would not live long enough to bear fruit, sprouts taken from the original tree and replanted by Roswell Humphrey would go on to produce the first Northern Spy apples. In 1852 the American Pomological Society listed the Northern Spy as a new variety of promise and a variety worth cultivating. Its popularity soon spread throughout New York as well as to northeast apple growing regions. Today the Northern Spy apple is grown mainly in the northeast United States as well as at a few specialty orchards on the west coast.
