The aromatic, tart-sweet, richly flavored Esopus Spitzenburg originated in the late 1700s in upstate Esopus, New York, supposedly in the orchard of a settler named Spitzenburg. (Spellings vary.) Thomas Jefferson favored this apple enough to plant the trees at Monticello in the early 1800s. Several decades later, in "Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story Of Wall-street," Herman Melville's narrator observed: "Copying law papers being proverbially dry, husky sort of business, my two scriveners were fain to moisten their mouths very often with Spitzenbergs to be had at the numerous stalls nigh the Custom House and Post Office."
The tree itself, unfortunately, is known as a shy bearer, and many commercial orchards forsook it long ago for more-fruitful varieties; it's no longer to be found at the "numerous stalls" of Melville's New York. Locally, though perhaps only for a few market days, Samascott is your best bet.
Also shown, below: a particularly sun-splashed Spitzenburg from a previous harvest; a Cox's orange pippin, another of Samascott's less common apple cultivars; hardy kiwis. Like their larger namesakes, these natives of northern China, Korea, Siberia and possibly Japan are the edible berries of a woody vine. By contrast, however, apart from the stems these fuzzless, grape-size fruits can be eaten whole.
Samascott Orchards
5 Sunset Ave., Kinderhook, New York
518-758-7224
www.Samascott.com
At the Columbia Greenmarket, Broadway between 114th and 116th Sts., Manhattan
www.GrowNYC.org/greenmarket/manhattan/columbia-su
Thursday and Sunday
