Roane’s White Crab

type: Cider

summary: A chance seedling of Virginia Crab found growing in Virginia in the late 1700s. It has likely disappeared in the course of two centuries since then.

identification: Small, round. The base colour is yellow with red blush on the sun exposed face. The stem is thin and long, set in a narrow, russetted cavity. Differs from the Virginia Crab in the pattern of bright stripes over the sun-exposed face.

characteristics: The flesh is cream coloured. Dry with a musty sweetness.

uses: It was a highly regarded cider apple, very similar in most respects to the Virginia Crab .

origins: Found growing as a wild seedling on the estate of Colonel John Roane in Virginia (U.S.A.) in 1790. According to Timothy Pickering in the 1814 "Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, Volume III," the apple arose on an old orchard planted entirely to Hughes' Crab (Virginia Crab). He recounts the events as Colonel Roane explained them in a letter. "In the year 1790, going with his father, in the month of October, to view a patch of tobacco; as they were passing an apple tree (situated among briars,) from which the apples had fallen, and covered the ground; his father told him to pick up one for him to taste... His father persisted, and on tasting the apple, pronounced it excellent; and directed his son to have them collected the next day. It was done. They were made into cider, producing about nine gallons; which proved to be of an admirable quality. In consequence, in the year 1792, and entire orchard was planted and grafted with this fruit, to which has been given the name of Roane's white crab." Despite the high praise given this cider apple, it appears to have been lost.

cultivation: In keeping with its Virginia Crab origin, the tree is small, with delicate leaves. Precocious. Produces crops annually but the best harvests occur every other year.

harvest: Ready for picking late in the fourth period or at the beginning of the fifth. The fruit keeps well for use with later apples.

notes: In all likelihood, the Roane's White Crab has disappeared from the roster of apples grown nowadays but at least it lives on in the descriptions dating back almost two centuries. Among these is William Coxe's summary in his 1817 edition of "A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees and the Management of Orchards and Cider." "This apple," he wrote, "I procured from Colonel John Roane of Virginia -- the original tree was discovered a wilding on his Estate, in the year 1790. In growth, it resembles the Hewes's crab; the leaves being very delicate, the wood hard, and the size of the tree small; it is an early and great bearer every second year, the apple is very small, not larger than the Hewes's crab; the form is round, the stalk thin, the skin yellow, with a small portion of russet about the stem, and spots of red scattered over it: the flesh is rich, dry, and of a musky sweetness; rough to the taste, from its astringent and fibrous properties, and leaving the pomace undissolved after pressing; the liquor is remarkably strong, of a syrupy consistence when first made, but becoming singularly bright by proper fermentation and racking. it will keep perfectly sweet in casks bell bunged, and placed in a cool cellar, throughout our summer months: the fruit ripens in September and October, and may be kept without rotting for late cider."