Growing Northern Spy apples is a great choice for anyone who wants a classic variety that is winter hardy and provides fruit for the entire cold season. Around here (Ontario) people who're familiar with it(mostly older people) usually just call it "Spy". Its tender-crisp flesh is creamy yellow and juicy. To get fruit from your Northern Spy apple tree, you need another tree nearby for cross-pollination. Extremely late leaf out, while holding leaves well into December, which can be a problem when early (wet) snow bends the branches. Northern Spy is an older variety of apple, developed by a farmer in the early 1800s in Rochester, New York. Northern Spy is an older variety of apple, developed by a farmer in the early 1800s in Rochester, New York. She should know, as she has been cooking apple pies for the swiss steak dinners at the Methodist Church every third Saturday of the month for years and years. You pick your UPS shipping options during checkout. The Northern Spy apples are large, vigorous tree with attractive, thin-skinned fruit. Greenish-yellow skin is flushed and striped scarlet red. Growing Northern Spy apples has been popular for over a century, thanks to the great flavor and diversity. Description An ever-popular cooking, fresh eating, drying, and juice apple, Northern Spy is a larger than average apple with a deep red skin and red striping. Crispin (or Mutsu), greenish-yellow exterior with an orange blush. We do not accept any liability for loss or damage incurred as a result of any errors in the content of this website. Around here, we call 'em Northern Spies or just Spies, not Northern's Pie. WATCH East Bloomfield, NY, about 1800. I loved these apples as a kid. Here in Western Michigan we have the biggest northern spy this year. I absolutely LOVE making pies with Northern Spy apples - yum! Northern Spy apple is native to the Northern East Coast of the United States and parts of New York, Michigan and Ontario. Fruits have fairly firm, juicy, sweet flesh with a pleasant flavour. The harvest time for this apple is around the end of September to the beginning of October. All about apples, pears, plums, and cherries - and orchards where they are grown. Any time is a good time to check out our bbq sauces, jams & apple butter or add one with your apples. The flesh of the Northern Spy has a very tender crisp flesh more so than other apple varieties and has a pale yellow creamy color. It needs full sun; well-drained, fertile soil; and plenty of room to grow. I would recomend it to people who like bubble-gum and or minty leather. The Northern Spy apple tree is a very popular apple variety in upstate New York. Great for pies and cider! Northern Spy is a very old-fashioned American variety which retains its popularity. For those unfamiliar with it, the Northern Spy apple is a relatively sweet thing with some tartness. I had a 50+ year old 3rd generation orchard owner come to tell me what to do from there. The large fruits have a wonderful, tart-sweet, vanilla-like flavor and are excellent for fresh eating, pies and cider. 4. Wonderful! Northern Spy apples are a very late season, large and stout apple with carmine red skin married with streaks of yellow and pale green. Self-sterile is a term that is applied to a plant that is incapable of reproducing with its own pollen. It's not too mushy, nor is it too stiff. Great eating apples, too--excellent crunch, acid and sweet in what feels like a 50/50 balance. Great for fresh eating but also wonderful for cooking, juices and cider. The apples this tree produces are very large and round. It is also stores very well, so you can stock up and makes pies to keep you warm all winter long. they had scab to deep to spray out. One of the most famous of all heirloom apples. This apple had the pequliar flavor of bubble-gum and minty leather. Up the slope in the back, I found these absolutely HUGE apples that I could only hold with both hands. Northern Spy is a “firm-tart” apple which is excellent for rich baked desserts such as pies. Medium 1-year bare-root tree $32.00 Mature height: 8ft-12ft after 10 years Semi-dwarf rootstock 012345678910 I have tried our local grocers, and some high end ones, and still no northern spys. We found an ancient apple tree in a mountain gully, bearing golden/green with slight blush or brown streak from the stem over the shoulder of apple. We have picked a few early, and already they are delicious! The Northern Spy Apple is a variety of apple native to the northern East Coast of the United States and parts of Michigan and Ontario and is very popular in upstate New York. The apples this tree produces are very large and round. For the 2020-21 planting season, Northern Spy is offered on the following rootstock(s) (listed in order of quantity in production, largest quantity first): M-7 (semi-dwarf, 2/3 of standard size) For Home Gardens If not, you can graft on a couple of branches. Originates from: Rochester, New York, USA, United States; Developed by: Farmer Oliver Chapin It is among the best keepers. It imparts a bit of a tartness in its bite, but more of a cider-quality flavor with hints of pear and sweetness. So what are Northern Spy apples? Best Uses. I grew up enjoying my grandmother's "deep-dish apple pie" (a pie baked in a shallow rectangular Pyrex pan with only a top crust) made from those apples. Dessert apple. Does have a strong pyrimdal growth habit so strong pruning a must and I staked 3 branches to grow horizontal. Northern Spy apples flesh is yellow to white, rather firm, very tender, crisp, juicy, slightly sweet and mildly acidic. 6. Thank You for an apple season that was by far the best. Northern Spy. Northern Spy is well known for its winter-hardiness. This tree ripens in early October, and is located next to an ancient mining road. In a recent conversation with friends about apples, the question arose as to why "Northern Spy" was so-named? Large and attractive tree for landscaping. He told me to cut all the macs. Our Spys are simply Gi-normous this year. Also love the What varieties it developed from is unknown, but this is considered an heirloom apple. Voted "Best Apple for pie" (our customers) If we run out of Spy try our Fortune Apples as a great replacement as Northern Spy is one of Fortunes parents. but keep the spy untill I could graft from it he said it was the best tree he had seen. Lots of wood and leaf when grown in a fertile spot. The texture is perfect for pie; it holds up to baking and produces a pie filling that is soft, but not too soft. Apples kept until March in dry, cool place. I've read different things about the odd name of this apple. Nowadays they are almost impossible to find. If you like a well-rounded apple that you can juice, eat fresh, or put into the perfect apple pie consider putting a Northern Spy tree in your yard. As mentioned, these are simply the best pie apples, producing absolutely perfect texture (soft yet toothsome) and good rich flavour (a hearty aroma, vanilla notes, perfect sweetness). Even here in apple country. It was raised in about 1800 and introduced in 1840. HELP??? The Northern Spy apple offers an especially tart flavor, but has a cider-quality freshness. 50-60" annual precip- evenly spread- with 160-220" of snowfall. Northern Spy is a very old-fashioned American variety which retains its popularity. Find more gardening information on Gardening Know How: Keep up to date with all that's happening in and around the garden. Closest description I can find. I would like to know variety. I just picked 2 bushell of 3 to 4 inch apples from a 12' tree 5 years after grafting. To get Spies these days you usually have to head to a good Farmer's market or an orchard. It keeps in a cold store well into spring. There are some great reasons to grow Northern Spy in your garden, including the tasty, versatile fruit. Golden Delicious, yellow or greenish-yellow exterior, elongated shape, five bumps on bottom. Winter. Northern Spy growing requirements are similar to those of other apple trees. My grandparents grew Northern Spy apples on their farm in Coopers Plains, NY. Our Tree Man injects it to keep it very healthy. We have had to suport the lower limbs. Northern Spy apple from Food Network. Who needs a Granny Smith, when you have an apple that embodies both the tartness and a great flavor when cooked. (Romeo, MI is well known for its orchards). The … We never went to pick them until after the first frost as Mom insisted it improved the flavor. Share with my family and i went to a good time to check out our bbq sauces jams! 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