Summer Thorle

Origin / History

Scotch in origin, and a very old variety (Bunyard). Downing calls it "a favorite Scotch Apple." The Herefordshire Pomona (1885), which heads the entry Whorle Pippin, states that its origin is not given in any of the leading works of authority. Its name has been supposed to be derived from its resemblance to the "Whorle," which was the propelling power, or rather impetus, of the spindle, when the distaff and spindle were so much in use. In Scotland and the North and East of England it is to be met with in almost every garden and orchard, but in the South and West it is but little known (Herefordshire Pomona).

Tree

Tree a free grower, rather pendent, very productive, bearing in clusters (Downing); grows freely and makes an excellent pyramid (Herefordshire Pomona). Bunyard alone gives growth and fertility as moderate. When the tree is loaded with fruit, as it usually is, it presents a very beautiful object (Herefordshire Pomona). Leaf small, round oval, irregularly serrate (Bunyard).

Fruit

Size: Small (Downing, Bunyard), or below medium (Herefordshire Pomona). Two inches and a quarter wide at the middle and an inch and three quarters high (Herefordshire Pomona); 2¼ by 2¼ inches (Bunyard).

Form: Oblate, or flat; handsome and regularly formed.

Stem: Short; a quarter of an inch long (Herefordshire Pomona).

Cavity: Wide.

Calyx: Eye scarcely at all depressed, large, half open, with broad and flat segments, which frequently appear as if rent from each other by an over swelling of the fruit (Herefordshire Pomona). Downing also gives half open; Bunyard says open.

Basin: Very shallow, often very russety, deeply and coarsely cracked (Herefordshire Pomona); Bunyard gives a very shallow russet basin.

Skin: Smooth, shining and glossy. Yellow, striped with crimson or red all over: almost entirely covered with fine bright crimson marked with broken streaks of darker crimson, and on any shaded portion a fine clear yellow, a little streaked with pale crimson (Herefordshire Pomona). Downing gives rich yellow with mottled stripes of rich red; Bunyard, yellow with crimson stripes all over.

Dots: Not described in source.

Flesh and flavor: Flesh yellowish white (Bunyard: yellow), firm, crisp, and very juicy. Flavor brisk, refreshing and pleasant (Herefordshire Pomona); brisk subacid (Downing). The Herefordshire Pomona calls it "a beautiful little summer dessert apple of excellent quality."

Core and seeds: Not described in source.

Season

August to September (Downing, Bunyard); ripe in August (Herefordshire Pomona).

Uses

Dessert apple (Herefordshire Pomona, Bunyard).

Subtypes / Variants

Not described in source.

Other

Not described in source.