Software
Houzz Logo Print
denninmi

'Red Steele' or 'Steele Red' Apple

19 years ago

Does anyone know of a source for an old apple variety known as 'Red Steele' 'Steele Red' 'Winter Steele Red' 'Red Canada' or 'Bristol' -- it seems to go by any of these names.

When I was a child, many years ago, we used to go to a pick your own orchard, and one of the varieties available was "Steele Red." The apples are small to medium, with sweet-tart, crisp white fresh, dark burgundy/red skin with many prominent white freckles on the skin. The fruit was good for pies, but was especially good for making caramel apples. Alas, the orchard has long since been buldozed to build a subdivision.

When I googled it, there were some references to it in apple literature, but no one seems to carry it anymore, not even people like Southmeadow or St. Lawrence, who carry the older and more northern varieties.

Comments (4)

  • 19 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    That apple has many names. Sutton is another name for it and Maple Valley Orchards has scionwood of that. Botner also has scionwood of one of the names, Steeles Red I believe. Nobody propagates trees that I know of.

    That apple was greatly liked by the early American writers and I am trying it myself for that reason. No results yet for me.

    Scott

    PS here is the Downing (1800s) description. His "very good to best" rating here is given to only a couple of the hundreds of apples he rates so is high praise indeed.

    Steele's Red Winter.

    An old fruit, formerly much grown in Connecticut and Massachu-
    setts, but is not now much planted, on account of its small size and poor
    fruit ; succeeds well in Western New York, Ohio, and Michigan. Tree
    thrifty, but of slender growth ; very productive. Young wood brown-
    ish olive.

    Fruit medium, oblate, inclining to conic. Skin yellow, mostly
    shaded with deep red or crimson, somewhat striped or splashed on the
    sunny side, and thickly sprinkled with gray, and sometimes greenish
    dots. Stalk short, inserted in a broad, deep cavity. Calyx closed.
    Segments long, in a small, narrow, somewhat irregular basin. Core
    small, close. Flesh white, tender, crisp, abounding with a brisk, refresh-
    ing juice, and retaining its fine, delicate flavor to the last. Very good
    to best. January to May.

  • 19 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Apples of New York lists Steele's Red Winter as a synonym of Baldwin.

    Both Big Horse Creek and Greenmantle offer grafted trees.

  • 19 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Amanda, there are many cases of names being applied incorrectly; all apples of new york is doing is documenting that fact. If you look there is a separate entry for Canada Red in Apples of New York which clearly is describing a different apple and which lists Steeles Red as a synonym. It also mentions that the apple in fact goes by that name in Michigan, not by Red Canada or some other name (in 1904 that is!), which makes it nearly certain that the apple Denni had was in fact Apples of New York's Red Canada. Here is the Red Canada entry from that book:

    RED CANADA.

    REFERENCES, i. Thacher, 1822:131. 2. Fessenden, 1828:131. 3. Manning,
    Mag. Plort., 7:47. 1841. 4. Hovey, Ib., 13:75. 1847. fig. 5. Watts and Down-
    ing, Horticulturist, 1:482. 1847. 6. Downing, Ib., 2:289. 1847. 7. Hovey,
    Mag. Hort., 14:124. 1848. 8. Horticulturist, 2:483, 544. 1848. 9. Thomas,
    1849:171. fig. 10. Cole, 1849:127. ii. Emmons, Nat. Hist. N. Y., 3:101. 1851.
    col. pi. No. 42. 12. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1852. 13. Mag. Hort., 19:68. 1853.
    14. Elliott, 1854:102. fig. 15. Hooper, 1857:76. 16. Downing, 1857:97. fig.
    17. Warder, 1867:542. 18. Regel, 1868:465. 19. Barry, 1883:353. 20. Wick-
    son, 1889:247. 21. Lyon, Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt., 1890:296. 22. Bailey, An.
    Hort., 1892:247. 23. Amer. Card., 20:104. 1899. 24. Budd-Hansen, 1903:161,


    276 THE APPLES OF NEW YORK.

    fig. 25. Powell and Fulton, U. S. B. P. I. Bui, 48:53. 1903. 26. Beach and
    Clark, N. Y. Sta. Bui, 248:140. 1904.

    SYNONYMS. Bristol of some. Canada Red (25). Canada Redstreak (26).
    NONESUCH (2). NONSUCH (i, 3, 8, 13). Nonsuch (9). OLD NONSUCH (7,
    10). Old Nonsuch (6, 9, 14, 15, 21, of Massachusetts 8 and 16). Red Canada
    (13, of Western New York 8 and TO). Red Winter (26). Richfield Nonsuch
    (10, n, 14, 15, 16, 19, of Ohio 9). Steele's Red Winter (20, 24, 25, 26, of
    Michigan 16). Steel's Red (17). Winter Nonsuch (10). Not the Canada
    Red of some portions of Ontario. See Roseau, page 292.

    This is a red winter apple which belongs in the same group with
    Baldwin and Esopus Spitsenburg. When well grown and in prime
    condition it is one of the best apples of its season for dessert use
    on account of its desirable size, attractive form and color and
    superior quality. It is well adapted to either general or special
    markets and often brings more than average prices. The quality
    of the fruit varies much in different seasons and in different locali-
    ties. When grown on heavy clay soils its quality in some seasons
    is decidedly inferior to that of Baldwin and would be rated only
    fair to good; but when grown on certain fertile soils of a gravelly
    or sandy nature in favorable seasons it develops color, flavor and
    quality fully equal to that of Esopus Spitzenburg. It stands heat
    well before going into storage and goes down gradually (26). Its
    season is somewhat variable. The commercial limit in ordinary
    storage is January or February, and in cold storage, April. Its
    season for home use usually extends from November to March or
    later. Although the fruit may remain apparently sound it is apt to
    lose much of its high flavor after midwinter. The tree is somewhat
    lacking in hardiness and is but a moderate grower. It should be
    top-worked on some hardier and more vigorous variety such as Bald-
    win or Northern Spy. In some cases it is an annual bearer but
    more often it is not a sure cropper.

    Waugh recognizes Roseau as the correct name for an apple which
    is commonly known in Ontario under the name of Canada Red.
    It is quite distinct from the variety above described. 1 For further
    consideration of this matter the reader is referred to Roseau, page 292.

    Historical This variety probably originated in New England but its origin
    is obscure. Thacher (i) in 1822 described it under the name Nonsuch and
    later Fessenden (2), Manning (3), Hovey (7) and other New England writers

    l Can. Hort., 18: 184. 1895. Waugh, Rural N. Y. t 62:143. 1903. Rural N. Y. ( 62:238,
    282. 1903.


    THE APPLES OF NEW YORK. 277

    recognized this name for the variety. In 1849 Cole (10) described it as the
    Old Nonsuch. It appears to have been brought into Western New York from
    the vicinity of Toronto, Canada, and afterwards cultivated in this region under
    the name Canada Red. The earliest mention we find of the variety under
    the name Red Canada or Canada Red, as these names appear to have been
    used interchangeably, is that of Watts and Downing in 1847 (5). In Michigan
    it has been often cultivated under the name of Steele's Red Winter. In some
    portions of Eastern New York it is grown under the name Bristol. It has
    been pretty generally distributed throughout the state. In some few localities
    its cultivation in commercial orchards is increasing but seldom has it been
    planted to any considerable extent, and, generally speaking, it is found only in
    old orchards.

    TREE.

    Tree medium to large, moderately vigorous to vigorous; branches short,
    stout, curved, crooked. Form upright to roundish, rather dense. Twigs
    medium in length, straight or nearly so, rather slender to moderately stout;
    internodes below medium to long. Bark olive-green tinged with reddish-
    brown, netted or streaked with thin scarf-skin, slightly pubescent. Lenticels
    scattering, not very conspicuous, small, round, slightly raised. Buds promin-
    ent, large to medium, long, narrow, plump, acute, free or nearly so, slightly
    pubescent. Leaves medium to broad, rather thin.

    FRUIT.

    Fruit medium to nearly large, pretty uniform in size and shape. Form
    roundish inclined to conic and somewhat flattened at the base, nearly sym-
    metrical and pretty regular but sometimes elliptical or obscurely ribbed and
    with sides a little unequal. Stem medium to rather slender, pubescent.
    Cavity usually large, acuminate, deep, wide, often partly russeted and with
    radiating green or russet rays, usually symmetrical, sometimes slightly fur-
    rowed. Calyx small, closed or partly open, pubescent. Basin small, usually
    narrow, shallow to moderately deep and rather abrupt, furrowed and some-
    times slightly wrinkled, often somewhat oblique.

    Skin tough, nearly smooth especially toward the cavity, slightly rough about
    the basin, rather clear light yellow or green largely overspread in well-colored
    specimens with a fine deep red blush, indistinctly striped with deeper red.
    Dots conspicuous, grayish or fawn colored. Toward the cavity they are scat-
    tering, large and often elongated as in Baldwin and Esopus Spitzenburg, but
    as they converge toward the apex they become more numerous and smaller.
    Prevailing effect very attractive bright deep red.

    Calyx tube elongated cone-shape or somewhat funnel-form. Stamens
    marginal.

    Core sessile, axile or nearly so, medium to rather small; cells symmetrical,
    closed or slit ; core lines clasping. Carpels usually smooth, roundish, narrow-
    ing somewhat toward the apex, mucronate, but slightly emarginate if at all.
    Seeds very numerous, medium to rather large, angular, long, moderately wide,
    plump, obtuse.

    Flesh whitish with yellow or greenish tinge, firm, crisp, rather fine-grained,
    tender, juicy, aromatic, rich, agreeably subacid but becoming rather too mild toward the close of the season, good to best

    Scott

  • 19 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Well upon reading Apples of New York all the way through it looks like Sutton is another apple distinct from Canada Red and Baldwin, and which was also sometimes also called "Steeles Red" in Michigan - ! So there is some chance that Apples of New York's "Sutton" is the apple you had. And, the Maple Valley Orchards list has this Sutton (Sutton's Beauty). Botner has Sutton Beauty, Canada Red, and Steeles Red so it is extremely likely one of those three is your apple, but its hard to say for sure which one.

    Scott