From the Living Museum
Smith's Cider
- Origin
- Bucks County, Pennsylvania (Berks County in one register); described by William Coxe in 1817
- Era
- Described 1817
- Type / use
- Cider
History & Stories
American cider apple valued for high sugar. Part of the historic Mid-Atlantic cider tradition.
Folklore & Name
American cider apple from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, described in 1817 1. Name of local or grower origin. Part of the historic American cider tradition.
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
Smith's Cider is an old Pennsylvania apple. S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York (1905) says it "has long been a favorite apple in Bucks county, Pennsylvania where it originated," and that it was "highly esteemed in certain regions farther south and west" 1. Beach notes that William Coxe described it in 1817 under the plain name "Cider Apple," "by which name it is still commonly known" in places, and that Coxe saw a resemblance to the old Vandevere of Pennsylvania 1. The UK National Fruit Collection's register records it from 1817, but places it in Berks County, Pennsylvania 2.
Beach called it "a beautiful fruit" when well grown, good "but not high in quality," and noted that it had never caught on with New York growers 1. Over the years it picked up names such as Pennsylvania Cider, Fowler, Fuller and Poplar Bluff 1.
The competing accounts
- S.A. Beach, 1905 1: originated in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; William Coxe described it in 1817 as the "Cider Apple."
- UK National Fruit Collection 2: recorded from 1817, but placed in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): Bucks County. Beach gives the fuller account, and he worked from Coxe's 1817 description; the similar county names make a slip in one record easy, though we can't prove which.
What we think: stories & traditions
Which Smith? No early source we found names the Smith in "Smith's Cider." It may have been the grower who first sold it, as with so many apples, but that is a guess.
Bucks or Berks? Both counties are in southeastern Pennsylvania, and the sources disagree 1,2. Either way, it comes from the same corner of the country, and the same era of farm cider, as the New Jersey apples Coxe wrote about.
Sources
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Smith Cider," pp. 310–311. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork01beaciala/page/310
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Smith's Cider" (register entry). www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=5872&fruit=apple
Curious about Smith's Cider?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.