From the Living Museum
White Winter Pearmain
- Origin
- Probably an old eastern U.S. variety, renamed in Indiana after its label was lost; recorded 1849; also known as American White Winter Pearmain
- Era
- Early 19th c. or earlier
- Type / use
- Dessert
History & Stories
Pale yellow or greenish fruit with crisp, juicy, aromatic, mild sweet flesh and excellent late storage. Unique as a classic American pearmain-type dessert apple valued for both flavor and keeping quality.
Folklore & Name
American White Winter Pearmain type. Early 19th century or earlier. Classic American pearmain — pale fruit, mild sweet aromatic flesh, excellent late keeper.
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
White Winter Pearmain is an American apple whose true origin was lost early. The UK National Fruit Collection says it is "thought to have originated in the eastern states" and was recorded in 1849 1. John Warder, the Ohio pomologist, told how it reached the Midwest in his American Pomology (1867): "This favorite fruit was brought to Indiana by some of the early pomologists, in the days of saddle-bag transportation" 2.
The competing accounts
- UK National Fruit Collection 1: "thought to have originated in the eastern states"; recorded in 1849.
- John Warder, 1867 2: grafts carried to Indiana lost their labels, and the unnamed white apple was called White Winter Pearmain there; he believed it an old eastern variety but never identified it. Downing suggested Winter Harvey 2.
- An Indiana origin is sometimes given, because the name was first used there 2.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): an old eastern American apple that lost its name on the way west and was renamed in Indiana. Both sources agree on an eastern source, and Warder explains how the Indiana link arose.
What we think: stories & traditions
The apples that lost their labels. Warder's story is the best thing about this apple. In a bundle of grafts carried west on horseback, "two varieties, having lost their labels, were propagated and fruited without name. Being considered Pearmain-shaped, they were called respectively Red and White Winter Pearmains." The red one turned out to be Esopus Spitzenburg; the white one "has never yet been identified, though believed to be an old eastern variety" 2. Downing suggested it might be Winter Harvey, but Warder left the question open 2.
So the name we use today is a nickname given by Indiana growers to a mystery apple. Picture saddlebags of cuttings, a lost label, and a tree that won its place on flavor alone. That is a very American story.
Its children. The National Fruit Collection lists it as a parent of Indo 1.
Sources
- UK National Fruit Collection, "White Winter Pearmain." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=6748&fruit=apple
- John A. Warder, American Pomology: Apples (New York: Orange Judd, 1867), "White Winter Pearmain," pp. 508–509. archive.org/details/americanpomology00ward/page/508
Curious about White Winter Pearmain?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.