The word “pearmain” is attached to names of at least three dozen apple varieties, a
few of which may be traced back to medieval England. At some point, in a separate
article, we’ll explore where the term possibly originated and what it might have
indicated. But if you think the word means “tastes like a pear,” you’d be hard-
pressed to find a better example of that than this obscure 19 th -century apple from
Maine—one that’s made something of a comeback in recent years.
The history of Gray Pearmain is brief but fairly clear. It was first recorded in
1885 as being grown and sold by a farmer named C.A. Marston, who lived in
Skowhegan, Maine. Fast-forward about a century or so, and The Apple Farm in
the nearby town of Fairfield still had about six old trees of the variety being tended
by Steve and Marilyn Meyerhans. They had taken over the farm from the previous
owner, Royal Wentworth, and he had identified the 50-yearold trees as ‘Gray
Pearmain’. Interestingly, neither Beach (1905) nor Stilphen in The Apples of
Maine mention this variety by name. But The Apple Farm liked this local apple
and they began to graft new trees from the aging ones. The great Maine apple
hunter John Bunker has helped this effort mightily and in recent years has begun to
offer the trees for sale through Fedco Trees. John dates the variety to before 1870
and confirms its origin in or around Skowhegan. A real local treasure.
The first time John brought a half-bushel of Gray Pearmains to an heirloom
apple tasting we held one November in Deerfield, Massachusetts, I was supremely
unimpressed with the apple’s plain, even drab, appearance. But, as if the prove the
old saw that “beauty is only skin-deep,” both the participants and I were wowed by
the apple’s unique flavor, and it received the highest rating for taste, winning the
contest hands-down.
Many apples have a taste described as “pear-like,” but to my palate at least
the comparison is more to an Asian pear than a European pear. Not Gray
Pearmain, though: the bright white flesh is very crisp and juicy like any good eating
apple, but the flavor is full-on pear, perhaps with an aromatic, almost piney note,
as Rowan Jacobsen has noted. To me, a crisp apple that tastes just like a nice
European dessert pear was (and still is) a revelation, and entirely unique. (If you
disagree, see me at the virtual card table with the sign that reads “Prove Me
Wrong”!)