It continues to be abnormally cold in central Maine, —10F at dawn and not much above zero (if at all) all day. In the afternoon our national Apple Working Group met via zoom to see if we can sort out the identity of an apple we’ve found in Washington, New Mexico and Colorado. We think it’s Walbridge, a high quality, winter, dessert cultivar that historians and explorers in the west have been searching for.
Walbridge likely originated in Illinois in the early 19th century where it may have been named Edgar Redstreak. It was apparently taken to Wisconsin and was eventually renamed Walbridge. From there it was widely disseminated in the western states where it thrived. Over time, along with numerous other heirlooms, it disappeared, or maybe we should say, it went under cover.
It's all over now, Baby Blue?
Over the past few years, leaves submitted for DNA profiling from multiple locations across the west turned out to be a match to each other, but not to any of the apples in the reference panel. This apple became known provisionally as “Baby Blue Group”. We think it might be Walbridge. So the Working Group is developing a process to assess all the information we’ve gathered in hopes of making identifications. Today we dove in.
We looked at the historical evidence, the genetic evidence and the phenotypic evidence. Where was it grown? How old are the trees? What else is growing in the orchards with it? Does the DNA profile make sense? Do the characteristics of the fruit itself match the historical description? We ask ourselves all these questions and more. We focus on the actual evidence and let it take us wherever it will. Our meetings are scheduled for an hour and a half, but today’s was nearly twice as long. In the end we weren’t sure. Do I think we’ve found Walbridge? I think we have.