This heirloom owes its name to its place in California horticultural history. In the mid 1890s Lowell Hill, near the Bear River, was already a famed apple growing area. James Buckner, then a well known fruit grower in Lowell Hill was documented in 1894 to have shipped two hundred boxes of highly prized apples to Nicholas II, then the Czar of Russia. Imagine the logistics of shipping apples around the world in the 1890s! This must have been one helluva a fruit to justify its international fame! We have discovered what we believe to be the trees in the remnants of a Lowell Hill orchard, that still produces wonderful fruit. This Pearmain type fruit is sweet, crunchy and very flavorful. It harvests in September to October @ 3900' and keeps for at least two months, longer with refrigeration. Excellent for fresh eating, very good in pies and applesauce. May be a good addition for cider, we haven’t tried them yet.

The grandmother tree exists on a historic orchard in Lowell Hill, at 3900’ in Placer county, CA. Lowell Hill was a gold mining town from the 1850s through the early 1900s and attracted numerous farmers and ranchers due to the deep forest soils, plentiful snowpack and good access to markets via proximity to the Western Pacific railroad in Dutch Flat, a rip roaring mining town on the other side of the Bear River. We have located three distinct heirloom orchards still growing around Lowell Hill with no human care. The bears and squirrels are the biggest challenge to harvesting these crops and the long-term survival of the trees.