Cooking Tips
Good for fresh-eating. Hold their shape and flavour during cooking. Some people like it for cider.
Storage Hints
Ships and stores very well. Taste even improves in storage.
History Notes
Newtown Pippins originated on the farm of Gershom Moore along Newtown Creek in what is now Queens, New York in the early 1700s. The original tree apparently died in 1805.
Thomas Jefferson, while in Paris, thought no apple he came across there held a candle to Newton Pippins. They were exported from America to the UK in the late 1700s. In 1838, two barrels were presented to Queen Victoria, who reputedly liked them very much. Throughout the 1800s, the apple did a booming business in England, and you could buy it at Covent Garden Market. Trade diminished after the end of World War 1 when the British government put a tax on imported apples.
During the 1800s, most of these apples were grown in Albermarle County, Virginia, but now they are mostly grown in Oregon and California. One of their alternative names, Albemarle Pippin, came about because of Albermale County. Albermale County in Virginia is where Jefferson’s home, Monticello, is.
Sources
Hatch, Peter J. “Newtown Pippin: Prince of Apples”. In “Twinleaf Journal”. Monticello and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, January 1995.