From the Living Museum
Piel de Sapo
- Origin
- Northern Spain
- Era
- Traditional northern Spanish
- Type / use
- Dessert · Dual-purpose (uncertain)
History & Stories
The name (‘Toad Skin’) refers to the rough, russeted, or textured skin. Traditional northern Spanish cider apple with dense flesh, classed as semi-acid in Spanish cider-making and as a bittersharp by Pomiferous 1,2. Unique regional character from the Iberian Peninsula.
Folklore & Name
Northern Spanish cider variety 1,2. ‘Piel de Sapo’ or similar = Toad Skin, referring to the rough, textured skin. Descriptive Iberian folk name.
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
Piel de Sapo ("toad skin") is a cider apple from northern Spain 1,2. Out on a Limb Apples, a Maine orchard, found it unlabelled at the USDA apple collection in Geneva in 2016 and traced its name with the staff's help 1. It is almost entirely covered in greenish and reddish-brown russet, "just like a toad," and is classed as semiácida in traditional Spanish cider-making 1. Pomiferous lists it as bittersharp, with dense, cream-coloured flesh 2.
What we think: stories & traditions
Spain, but which region? Both sources say only northern Spain 1,2. Northern Spain's cider country is mainly Asturias and the Basque Country, so Catalonia, which is sometimes given, seems less likely. That is our inference, not a documented origin.
Sources
- Out on a Limb Apples, "Piel de Sapa." www.outonalimbapples.com/varieties/piel-de-sapa
- Pomiferous, "Piel de Sapa." pomiferous.com/applebyname/piel-de-sapa-id-8517
Curious about Piel de Sapo?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.