Baxter

type: Dessert

synonyms: Baxter's Red, Larue, Red Pound, Simcoe

summary: A heritage apple that apparently originated in Canada during the 1800s and continues to be grown to this day for eating fresh and for baking.

identification: Large size and oblate in shape with some ribbing on the faces and at the calyx. The stalk is short and somewhat stout, set in deep, wide cavity which is usually russetted. The skin is tough with green yellow base colour over which a blushes of dark red. A blueish bloom develops over the surface as it starts to mature.

characteristics: The flesh is yellowish, occasionally stained red next to the skin an somewhat firm and coarse-grained though tender. Sprightly, sweet, juicy and mildly aromatic.

origins: Popular history suggests that this apple was found growing as a chance seedling in the late 1700s by Billa (William) Larue, a United Empire Loyalist, on land he had acquired near Brockville, in Leeds County, Ontario (Canada). That may not be accurate. In the 1889 issue, Volume XII, of "The Canadian Horticulturalist," there is an article by David Nichol entitled "The Larne Apple—Alias, the Baxter.” He wrote that "In the year 1855 I started nursery business in company with the late Mr. Rich Coleman, of Lyn, near Brockville. During the following Winter I observed an old gentleman (Mr. Baxter) peddling in the village some very handsome, large, red apples at five cents each; I purchased a few and, being so struck with their appearance, I made inquiry as to where they were grown, and so forth. Mr. Baxter informed me that the tree from which the apples were plucked was growing at Larne's Mills, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, about thirteen miles west of Brockville. I asked him for some scions from the tree, and in a few days thereafter he kindly brought me twenty-five strong shoots, which I root-grafted, and from which I raised about fifty trees. These, I believe, were the first trees of the kind ever propagated. I named them the Baxter. The following year… becoming anxious to see the parent tree with the fruit growing on it, and to ascertain its habits, I drove to Larne's Mills, and I found it growing in an old orchard belonging to Mr. Billa Larne, who told me he brought with him from France, in the year 1813, the seeds from which the tree grew…" In another section of the Canadian Horticulturalist, Volume 12, it was disclosed that the apple was raised by Billa Larue, not Billa Larne and that the name of the apple is not Larne, but Larue. In the 1891 issue of The Canadian Horticulturist, Volume XIV, there is a lengthy discussion of the proper name for this apple. The crux of the discussion revolved around who should actually be considered the originator of the apple in question. Some of the panelists felt that Billa Larue should have that honour since he raised the first tree on his own property, others argued that it should be Baxter since the apple was promoted and distributed by a Mr. Baxter. Another panelist pointed out that a previous panel had decided on the name Simcoe and, in the end, it was decided that the matter should be referred to a future discussion.

cultivation: Vigorous, upright spreading and hardy tree.

cold storage: Keep about two months in storage.

harvest: Ready for harvest late in the fourth period.