Harrison Crab

type: Culinary, Cider, Eating

synonyms: Harrison, Harrison Cider, Harrison Newark, Late Harrison, Long Stem, Longstem, Orange Cider, Osborne (there is also an apple by this name; see Osborne ).

summary: Touted as one of the finest cider apples that ever emerged in North America, the Harrison was almost lost, but is once again being cultivated by cider makers.

identification: Small tending to medium size, round-conic. The base colour is yellow, sometimes with a brownish-red flush on the sun-exposed face. Dark, rather large lenticels are scattered helter-skelter across surface. The stem is moderately long and slightly stout, set in a shallow, but funnel-shaped cavity.

characteristics: The flesh is yellow, firm, coarse-grained and dry. Very sweet, slightly tart and rich in flavour, with a velvety mouth feel and smokey peach notes. Slightly astringent finish.

uses: Though intended as a cider apple, the Harrison is also an excellent culinary apple when used for baked goods and some people favour it as a fresh-eating apple.

origins: Found among a large quantity of mixed apple sprouts obtained by Samuel Harrison of Newark, New Jersey (U.S.A.) from a Mr. Osborne in nearby South Orange, New Jersey in 1712. The seedlings became the makings of Samuel Harrison’s orchard and focal point of the orchard was what was initially called the Osborne Apple and later the Long Stem. First documentation of the varietal, subsequently called the Harrison, was by William Coxe in his 1817 edition of “A View of the Cultivation of Fruit-Trees and the Management of Orchards and Cider” and it found favour far and wide, to the point where America’s first President, George Washington, declared that he preferred cider made from the Harrison over even Hewe’s Crab. It was widely cultivated during the early 1800s, but by mid-century, the demand for cider declined and the Harrison all but disappeared by the turn of the century. Fortunately, an ancient Harrison Crab tree was discovered growing in next to the Nettie Ochs Cider Mill (long since demolished) on Short Hills Road in Livingston, New Jersey in 1976 by a heritage fruit tree collector from Vermont, Paul Gidez, who managed to obtain cuttings just weeks before the tree was felled to make room for a garden. A second ancient Harrison tree was found in 1989 by Tom Burford, a Virginia-based nurseryman, when he located an old tree on an estate near Paramus, New Jersey. Between the two, the Harrison has once again become available to contemporary cider makers.

cultivation: Vigorous, upright spreading tree. Bears fruit on tips. It produces heaviest crops every other year. Very slow to start producing fruit; on its own roots a Harrison can take 12 to 15 years to show the first blossoms, on dwarfing root stock that lapse can still amount to four years or more.

mutations: There is a red mutation of the Harrison, but attempts to promote it have failed.

cold storage: Does not store well. Figure on a sweating time of three weeks.

vulnerabilities: Scab resistant but highly susceptible to cedar apple rust.

harvest: In the last half of the fifth period and the apples tend to fall as they come ripe.

notes: Described as one of the very best cider apples ever developed in North America, the Harrison was traditionally blended with must from the Campfield apple to produce a sparkling cider known as the "Champagne of Newark."

juice character: The juice is syrupy with a rich gold colour, tending to amber. An excellent and complex cider apple.

juice_classification: Sharp