Green Balsam apple

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A 19th century variety grown in a small part of the county of North Yorkshire, and known as "the farmer's wife's apple".

According to Robert Hogg, writing at the end of the 19th century, Green Balsam is a variety known only in the northern parts of the county of North Yorkshire, where it is very popular. It was commonly known as the Farmer's Wife's apple, a testament no doubt to its culinary uses.

Green Balsam is a typical primitive small green cooking apple, acidic but not particularly juicy. Its usage died out when other more productive cooking apples became available from other areas of the country.

Last updated 28 May 2011.

Also known as

Balsam

Summary

Species: Malus domestica
Origin: Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Introduced: Early 19th century
Orange Pippin Cultivar ID: 100500

Identification

Fruit colour: Green
Fruit size: Small

Using

Good for cooking

Growing

Flowering group: 2
Fertility: Self-sterile
Triploid: No
Attractive blossom Nice blossom for such an unpreposessing apple.

Climate

Suitable for temperate climates

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Visitor comments

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12 Nov 2011		Chris HollilandNOTTINGHAMSHIRE, United Kingdom
	The tasting notes seriously traduce this variety. Our tree , from Roger's Nursery, produces vast numbers of typically small green apples. Itr is now 12/11/2011, the fruit is ready for picking and is sweet and very juicy The taste isn't pronounced but is better than any bought apple. The fruit keeps until May/June, stored outside, under a quince, in one of those plastic blanket boxes.
16 Jun 2011		SheilaNORTH YORKSHIRE, United Kingdom
	I have a three year old Green Balsam apple on M106 rootstock bought from the local nursery RV Rogers in Pickering. I have never seen such a productive apple - there were 278 apples - yes - 278, on the 7 ft high tree last year. The fruit was clustered on branches and round the stem, which looked impressive.The apples are indeed slightly less juicy that one would expect for an English apple, but they can be picked late, they mature with keeping, and we ate the last few apples at the beginning of May this year, when they were still firm and not at all soft.They spent this last cold winter in strong plastic supermarket bags in the garden shed, covered lkoosely with a piece of sacking. I would class it as an eating apple rather than a cooker. Its habit is upright or urn shaped rather than spreading and is extremely vigorous. I first met this tree some years ago as a standard - and what a huge tree it was.

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