An American heirloom from the early 1800s Delaware and offered by Gillet beginning in 1884. Fruit is medium size or larger with yellow skin overlaid with pale, red stripes, streaked and stained with orange-red blush. The very firm, tender, yellow flesh is crisp, juicy and sweet, a fine lively flavor. Ripens in October or later at 3600'. Used fresh, cooking, dried or for baking. Very good for juice and hard cider. A good keeper, it becomes greasy feeling in storage and loses some crispness, but remains an excellent cooking apple until March or April.

The mother tree is growing on an old homestead in the mining town of Washington, Nevada County, CA on the shores of the South Fork of the Yuba River @3600’. It was settled during the Gold Rush in 1849 and produced a large amount of placer gold. Hard rock mines were established soon afterword and were very productive. Washington is the only settlement in the vicinity to have survived to this day. There remains much evidence of placer gold mining, hydraulic mining, and hard rock mining. During the mining period there were a large number of Chinese living there. We have only recently began to explore this treasure trove of history, and will have more introductions from this ‘hood in coming years.