This 1800’s apple is one of the definitive English cooking and eating apples, with the prime qualities of an English “cooker” – a juicy acidic flavor and it keeps very well. The large green fruit are sharp and juicy. The grain is fine and does not disintegrate in the oven, the best apple for tarte tatin. Storing well, it mellows and can be used as an eater. Makes an excellent cider. The trees ripen from October until Christmas and are fine as dessert apples by then. It is an easy tree to grow, with good disease resistance and tolerating a wide range of soils, a steady heavy bearer, and rarely fails to produce a crop. Self fertile, needs no pollinizer.

The mother tree grows near Rock Creek outside Nevada City, Nevada County @2500’, on a large 1800’s homestead being renovated by a young farmer, about 2 miles from Gillet’s Barren Hill Nursery. Nevada City was a bustling place in the late 1800’s, the Queen of the Northern Mines, with much agriculture to feed the miners. We have found many Felix trees in this community, likely due to nearly 100 years of continuous nursery operation. Felix grew many of the trees and vines still thriving in and around Nevada City.