Scott Winter

For many years my experience with Scott Winter was confined to its perennial

listing in the Saint Lawrence Nursery catalog, where renowned nurseryman Bill

MacKentley described it as a super-hardy Vermont apple suitable for his Zone 3

growing region in far northern New York.

More recently I’ve had the chance to taste and purchase the fruit from the

eponymous Scott Farm in West Dummerston, Vermont, just outside of

Brattleboro. Now, one might reasonably assume that Scott Winter originated in or

near this orchard. However, one would be mistaken. In fact, Scott Winter hails

from a totally different Scott Farm, at the other end of Vermont, located in

Orleans County just south of Lake Memphremagog and the Canadian border. It

was there that the original seedling apple tree grew and was noticed around 1864

(though some sources say earlier). By the late 1870s the fruit was getting some

attention even outside Vermont, and around 1880 a Dr. T.H. Hopkins of Newport

began propagating and promoting the variety. Stilphen in The Apples of Maine

says that Hoskins thought so highly of the apple that he planted 850 trees in his

own orchard.

I confess that I haven’t traveled up to Newport for some time, so Scott

Winter always makes me think of that other scenic orchard in southeast Vermont,

where I go every year in the fall when the days are still warm and sunny and the

brilliance of the maple foliage is on full display. This Scott Farm is well worth a

drive up into the hills above the commercial strip of Route 5 north of Brattleboro.

A couple of miles brings you to a tree-lined gravel road, Kipling Road, named for

the English writer Rudyard Kipling, who lived for several years on the estate in the

1890s, and who loved the foliage as much as I do today. In his book Letters of

Travel Kipling wrote about the turning of the leaves:

A little maple began it, flaming blood-red of a sudden where he stood against the

dark green of a pine-belt. Next morning there was an answering signal from the

swamp where the sumacs grow. Three days later, the hill-sides as fast as the eye

could range were afire, and the roads paved, with crimson and gold. Then a wet

wind blew, and ruined all the uniforms of that gorgeous army; and the oaks, who

had held themselves in reserve, buckled on their dull and bronze cuirasses and

stood it out stiffly to the last blown leaf, till nothing remained but pencil-shadings of

bare boughs, and one could see into the most private heart of the woods.

Back to the apple itself though. Initially the main selling point for Scott Winter was

its impressive hardiness. (Bill MacKentley describes it as hardy to -

50 o F, with only occasional winter injury.) However, the quality of this attractive

midseason fall fruit is quite good; it has a nice acidity that makes it a good apple for

culinary uses. This acidity mellows a bit in storage, making it a nice sprightly eating

or cooking apple even later in the season.