Today in the orchard
Carol Gillette and the Tozette Russet, Sept 5, 2025
In the morning we hosted a small apple sauce tasting party with our visiting friends. We tried five different single-variety sauces. No clear winner although Red China did produce an electric-rose-pink sauce that could be described as a visual grand slam. We then packed apples to sell at “Apples Jubilee!” tomorrow in Cushing at the Langlais Art Preserve in Cushing where I will give a talk. Later we visited two ancient, nearby trees—the Parmenter Russet and the Tozette Russet—where we collected fruit for Cushing. Both trees have been DNA profiled. Parmenter is GR1, the famous Golden Russet of Western New York. Tozette remains unidentified. For now we call it GR2 and have been working on an ID. For now it remains a top-priority mystery.
We have found other ancient GR2 trees in several midcoast Maine locations. GR2 is also in the parentage of the possible Bourassa and the possible Union Pippin, both ancient trees themselves. We have not found GR2 outside the state, suggesting it may be a locally selected seedling. After reviewing Z.A. Gilbert’s 1896 article, “The Russets of Maine”, I think there is a possibility that GR2 is a “Faux-English Russet” that was being grown in Waldo County (the general location of all the GR2’s). Gilbert writes, “An apple has been grown under the name of English Russet to a considerable extent in western Penobscot county and was also frequently found a few years ago in Waldo county… It is emphatically distinct from the English Russet of the books…” Gilbert includes a brief phenotypic description of the apple which generally fits GR2. We will do a deeper dive into the apple later this fall when the fruit is ripe and report our findings.
