Tolman Sweet

type: Cider, Eating, Pie, Sauce

synonyms: Brown's Golden Sweet, Tallman Sweeting, Tolman's Sweet, Tolman's Sweeting

summary: This cold-hardy, biennial apple is favoured for fresh-eating as well as baking and cider.

identification: Medium size, round, sometimes round-conic, and lightly ribbed which is most noticeable at the crown. The skin is pale yellow, with a faint red blush on the sun-exposed face and sometimes a light russetting radiating across the face. A faint suture line can be seen at both ends, although that line can be quite well defined at times. Sparsely marked with greyish lenticels. The stem is slender and medium tending to long, set in a open and deep, russetted cavity.

characteristics: The flesh is white, fine-grained, firm and crisp. Moderately juicy, sometimes rather dry, very sweet, tart. Bruises easily.

uses: Frequently used for pies, sauces and dried apple rings. Seedlings were at one time used for root stock.

origins: The Tolman Sweet likely originated in the northeastern United States during the late 1700s or early 1800s and is probably a cross of Sweet Greening and Old Russet. Another version states that it hails from the Dorchester area of Massachusetts (U.S.A.). The nearby state of New York also has a bid with the story that Thomas Tallman raised it on his land near Geneva, New York from pips collected near the Finger Lakes. The variety was first documented in 1822 by James Thacher in "The American Orchardist" where it is listed as the Tolman Sweeting with Thacher's comment "I have not been able to trace to its origin this justly admired apple." Robert Manning lists it as Tolman Sweet in the February 1841 issue of "The Magazine of Horticulture" with the comment "An excellent table or baking apple during the winter." A.J. Downing is less kind in his description of this apple in his 1845 edition of "Fruit and Fruit Trees of America" with the acknowledgement "The Tolman's Sweeting is scarcely second rate as a table fruit, but it is one of the most popular orchard sorts, from its great productiveness, its value as food for swine and cattle as well as for baking." He maintains that it is native to Rhode Island.

cultivation: Moderately vigorous, spur bearing, upright spreading with drooping limbs. Starts to bear quite young and is generally long lived, producing good crops in an alternating years.

cold storage: Keeps up to three months in cold storage.

vulnerabilities: Susceptible to fire blight.

harvest: Over a span of several weeks starting late in the mid-season. The fruit shows no tendency to drop at maturity.