Rhode Island Greening

The most widespread (and perhaps the best) cooking apple growing in the San Juan Islands is locally known as Greening, but more specifically it is a Rhode Island Greening—a heritage apple variety that seems, indeed, to have originated in Rhode Island, sometime before 1650 and which was being grown in the San Juans by 1880. Confusion arises however, when you know that there is also a variety called Northwestern Greening. The name is misleading (and dated): Northwestern Greening is a green cooking apple from Wisconsin, that originated around 1872; the old “Northwest”. Rhode Island Greenings are a feature of most old island orchards, while Northwestern Greenings were not mentioned in any historical references on island orcharding. You can see Rhode Island Greenings at orchard at the Environmental Learning Center in Moran State Park and at the San Juan County Land Bank’s Coffelt Farm Preserve (and in season buy them from the Lum Farm’s farmstand, and scions are available through our annual scion exchange and grafting workshops on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan).

What makes a Greening a Rhode Island Greening? Greenings are large trees that often have slightly drooping branches (particularly in old trees that were pruned to have an open center). They tend towards biennial (every-other-year) production and are in bloom midseason, overlapping with Blue Pearmain, Golden Russet, Newton Pippin, Esopus Spitzenburg, Winter Banana, and Wagener. Greenings are a triploid vareity and need to be planted with at least two other varieties for pollination. The fruit are are large green apples with no stripes and distinct white dots (lenticles). When exposed to the sun they often develop a pink “cheek” on the side facing the sun, and they may have brown leathery russetting around the stem and blossom ends (rarely forming a thin web over the main part of the apple). They are generally round and can be slightly ribbed. When very ripe (particularly after long storage) they may turn yellow. The fruit are dense, and heavy for their size, the flesh is slightly green and holds its shape when cooked.

Although they are superlative cooking apples you can also enjoy ripe Greenings in slices. The dense flesh makes them particularly well suited for apple cakes. Rich in pectin they make a silky smooth apple butter. Despite their density, Greenings yield abundant juice and make excellent sweet cider. In hard cider making they are considered a “sharp”, low in tannin but high in fruit acids. Greenings keep very well, and can be used for baking well into the spring.

Also known as: Burlington Greening, Hampshire Greening, Jersey Greening, Rhode Island

You can view watercolors of Rhode Island Greening in the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection.