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French Crab
type: Culinary, Cider, Ornamental, Sauce
synonyms: Amiens Long Keeper, Bobin, Claremont, Claremont Pippin, Easter Pippin, Green Beefing, Iron King, Iron Stone Apple, Ironside, Ironsides (there is also a varietal that goes by this name; please see Ironsides ), Ironstone, Ironstone Pippin, John Apple, Robin (there is also a varietal that goes by this name; please see Robin Flowering Crab ), Somerset Stone Pippin, Three Years Old, Tunbridge Pippin, Two Years Apple, Winter Greening, Winter Queening, Yorkshire Robin, Young’s Long Keeper, Young’s Long Keeping, Young’s Long-Keeping.
summary: A highly-rated French or British culinary apple that is very aromatic when cooked and makes a sweet-sharp, flavourful apple sauce.
identification: Medium size, round, sometimes round-conic. Ridged at the crown. The skin is glossy and the base colour is very green with a dull brownish blush on the sun-exposed face. Marked with small, light-coloured, russetted lenticels. The calyx is small and closed or almost closed, set in a shallow and narrow, ribbed basin. The stem is medium long and medium thickness, set in a deep and narrow, russeted cavity.
characteristics: The flesh is greenish, coarse-grained and firm. Somewhat dry, acidic and astringent.
origins: Thought to have originated in France and likely introduced in England in the mid 1700s. Described briefly by William Forsyth in his "A Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit-Trees" (printed in 1802) as "The French Crab is good for baking; and when it is a favourable Season, will make a pretty good show at the table.
It keeps the longest of any Apple that we know, being in eating from April to Christmas." Briain's imminent pomologist, Robert Hogg, described it under the name Winter Greening in the 1851 edition of "British Pomology" as "A culinary apple of first-rate quality, which comes into use in November, and has been known to last under favorable circumstances, for two years. Dry sand is a good article to preserve it in."
cultivation: Moderately vigorous. Upright spreading on its own roots.
cold storage: Keeps six months or more but becomes somewhat bland after a long period.
harvest: In the middle of the fourth period.
pollination group: D
pollination peak: 15
ploidism: Diploid. Self sterile.
cold storage weeks: 24
harvest period: 4
hardiness: 4
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