From the Living Museum
Arkansas Black
- Origin
- Benton County, Arkansas, first fruiting about 1870 in a Mr. Brathwaite's orchard near Bentonville
- Era
- c. 1870
- Type / use
- Dessert · Dual-purpose · Cider
From the ArchiveFilm
Watch its story
The Apple That Rewards Patience
A short narrated history of Arkansas Black, told through the archive illustrations of our apple collection.
Illustrations: Ellen Isham Schutt (1909) and Deborah Griscom Passmore (1895), USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, National Agricultural Library (public domain). Narrated with a synthetic voice.
Watch on YouTubeHistory & Stories
Medium-to-large fruit that turns an almost black-red with heavy bloom. Extremely firm, crisp, spicy-aromatic flesh that actually improves in storage for months. Unique as one of the darkest and longest-keeping of all American dessert apples; still highly prized by heirloom growers and cider makers for its intensity and keeping quality. Moderately disease-prone in humid climates but worth the effort.
Folklore & Name
Named for its nearly black skin. First grew in a Mr. Brathwaite's orchard near Bentonville, Arkansas; the sources we found give no first name 2. Became one of the classic late-keeping American dessert apples of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Arkansas Black comes from Benton County in the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas. S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York (1905) records that it "originated in Benton county, Arkansas, and bore its first fruit about 1870," and that the first published description he could find was by Van Deman in 1886 1. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas adds that early sources place the first tree in the orchard of a Mr. Brathwaite, about a mile and a half northwest of Bentonville 2.
Beach called it "one of the most beautiful of apples," a good keeper that "commands a good price in market," its red deepening "to purplish-red or nearly black" on the sunny side. He also warned that the tree was "unproductive," a real drawback for commercial growers 1. It should not be confused with the older Arkansas or Mammoth Black Twig, a different apple from the same state 2.
The competing accounts
- S.A. Beach, 1905 1: arose in Benton County, Arkansas, and first fruited around 1870; he found no published description before Van Deman's in 1886.
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas 2: early sources put the first tree in a Mr. Brathwaite's orchard northwest of Bentonville, and it was once believed to be a Winesap seedling.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): Benton County, about 1870, in Brathwaite's orchard. The two sources fit together. The Winesap parentage is a belief based on resemblance, not a record.
What we think: stories & traditions
A Winesap child? (theory) The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says the tree was originally thought to be a seedling of Winesap 2. That fits its dark color and long keeping, but nobody recorded the seed parent, so it remains a guess.
The color of the name. The name simply describes the fruit. Picture a cellar shelf in an Ozark farmhouse in late winter, the other apples long gone soft, and these still hard, glossy and almost black: Beach gives its season as "December to April or later" 1.
Sources
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Arkansas Black," pp. 49–50. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork01beaciala/page/49
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas, "Arkansas Black Apple." encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/arkansas-black-apple-2100/
Curious about Arkansas Black?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.