Golden Harvey,

BRANDY APPLE.

This highly flavored English apple is often referred to, but is rarely seen in American collections; but as it may be interesting to some, I quote Downing's brief description:

"Fruit small, irregularly round; Skin rather rough, dull russet over a yellow ground, with a russety red cheek; Flesh yellow, of fine texture, with a rich sub-acid flavor. The fruit is apt to shrivel."

Tree of slender growth.

— John A. Warder, American Pomology: Apples (1867)

1. GOLDEN HARVEY. [Syn: The Harvey Apple; Round Russet Harvey; Brandy Apple.] The history of this apple is not known. It is doubtful if it existed before the 17th century. Evelyn mentions it, and says that "some persons prefer the cider from the Hervey Apple (being boiled) to all other ciders." The Harvey Apple and Russet Hervey are both mentioned by Worlidge, though he could scarcely have known its excellence for the dessert table, or he would have caused it to be cultivated in every part of England, and have made it to be "everywhere esteemed, as it is in Herefordshire, as the best fruit of its species." It is called "golden" from the bright yellow colour of its flesh. Description.—Fruit: small, oblato-cylindrical, even and free from angles. Skin: entirely covered with rough, scaly russet, with sometimes a patch of the yellow ground colour exposed on the shady side, and covered with brownish red on the side next the sun. Eye: small and open, with very small, reflexed segments, set in a wide, shallow and slightly plaited basin. Stalk: half an inch long inserted in a shallow cavity. Flesh: yellow, firm, crisp, juicy, sugary, with an exceedingly rich and powerful aromatic flavour. The Golden Harvey, or as it is more commonly called in Herefordshire, the Brandy Apple, in a warm and favourable season, is perhaps the most delicious of all dessert apples. It is fit for the table from December to May or June, but it requires however to be carefully kept, in jars, or in boxes in sand, for if exposed to light and air it will shrivel as do most of the late keeping russet apples. The flesh of the Golden Harvey apple is firm and crisp. Mr. Edward Solly found that 1000 parts of the ripe fruit, consisted of organic matter 2140; inorganic matter 35; and water 7825; (Trans. of Horticultural Society, London, 2nd Series, Vol. I., p. 62.) The juice is singularly rich and aromatic. Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight found its specific gravity to be 1085, exceeding that of any other apple he had examined. The cider made from it has so much strength, as to give the apple its favorite local name of Brandy Apple. It must be confessed however that its richness and flavour are most commonly lost in the manufacture. When however in a good season, the sweetness and aroma are happily retained, the cider is as rich as it is potent, and tradition tells that it has not unfrequently been exchanged, bottle for bottle, for the best old port wine. The tree grows freely to a medium size with slender drooping branches, and is perfectly hardy; but it is rather fickle in bearing. On the paradise stock it is well adapted for dwarf training, forms a good espalier, and bears with more certainty. "No garden, however small, should be without it" says Lindley. The Golden Harvey has been figured in Knight's "Pomona Herefordiensis" (1812,) Pl. xxii.; in Ronalds' "Pyrus Malus Brentfordiensis" (1836,) Pl. xxiii.; and in Lindley, "Pomological Magazine," Pl. 39.

— Woolhope Naturalists Field Club, The Herefordshire Pomona (1885)

Golden Harvey. Brandy Apple. An excellent, high-flavored little dessert Apple from England, of slender growth. Fruit small, irregularly round. Skin rather rough, dull russet over a yellow ground, with a russety red cheek. Flesh yellow, of fine texture, with a spicy, rich, subacid flavor. The fruit is apt to shrivel. December to April.

— A.J. Downing, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1900)

THE GOLDEN HARVEY APPLE.

Golden Harvey. Pomona Herefordiensis, 2 t. 22. Hort. Soc. Fruit Cat. no. 374. Brandy Apple. Forsyth's Treatise, ed. 7. p. 95.

This is by some supposed to be an Apple of very ancient date. Trees of considerable age are said to be growing on the Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire. By others it is doubted whether the writers on the fruits of the 17th century were acquainted with it, though Evelyn says, that some persons preferred the cider " of the Harvey Apple (being boiled)" to all other ciders; and the Harvey Apple and Russet Harvey are both mentioned by Worlidge. These doubts are very much strengthened by the fact that the Golden Harvey is even at the present day but little cultivated in comparison with its surpassing merits. It is, perhaps, the very best of all our fruits, on which account it is probable, that if of an old origin, it would have been by this time more universally known. It is not to be supposed, that because Worlidge names two sorts of Harveys, this must necessarily be one of them; for in the cider counties there appear to be three distinct kinds under that name, and the Harvey Apple of Norfolk is a sort totally different from either of these three.

A most excellent variety, bearing in great abundance in many situations, ripening in December, and keeping till May, or even longer. Its flavour is more rich and agreeable than that of any other variety of Apple. No garden, however small, should be without it.

It is much esteemed as a cider fruit, on account of the quantity of sugar it contains. The cider made from it is very strong, but not rich, for which reason it has acquired the name of the Brandy Apple. The specific gravity of its juice is said, in the Pomona Herefordiensis, to be 1085.

Wood weak, erect, downy at the extremities, olive green, a little spotted.

Leaves ovate, acuminate, finely serrated, appearing early, but slightly downy in any part. Stipules subulate, smooth.

Fruit small, quite round, often growing in clusters, free from angles or irregularities of surface. Stalk short. Eye small, contracted. Skin dull russet, with a bright yellow ground, often breaking through the russet in patches. Flesh firm, breaking, very rich, juicy, spicy, and high-flavoured.

— John Lindley, Pomologia Britannica, Vol. 1 (1841)

Golden Harvey. Brandy Apple. Foreign. Small, roundish, russet on yellow, reddish cheek, sub-acid. November to March.

— F.R. Elliott, The Western Fruit Book (1865)

Planted Spring 1894. Tree a strong grower. Fruit small, round, flattened at eye. Skin rough, russet on a greenish yellow ground with a russet red cheek. Flesh yellow, fine, spicy, rich, sub-acid, inclined to shrivel, quality good. Season January and February.

— Central Experimental Farm, Central Experimental Farm, Agassiz BC — Catalogue of Fruit Trees under Test (Bulletin No. 3, 1900) (1900)

GOLDEN HARVEY. Ronalds, p. 23. F., Harvey doré. (Brandy Apple, Round Russet Harvey.) Dessert, till May, small, 2 by 1¾, flattened, round, even. Colour, greenish-yellow with dull red flush, covered with thin russet. Flesh, firm, yellow, very sweet and rich. Eye, open in a shallow basin. Stem, moderately long, in a small cavity. Growth, moderate; fertile. Leaf, rather small, nearly flat. Origin, English; known early in the seventeenth century. The original tree was at the Royal Horticultural Show, at Chiswick, in 1821. One of the good old sorts which have been neglected.

— E.A. Bunyard, A Handbook of Hardy Fruits (1920)