Wolf River is, by far and wide, my favorite apple of all time. I have three of them in my orchard, and they so dwarf all the other apple varieties, that I tend to forget about the others entirely.
Wolf River is an 1800’s heirloom, and as is the case with many heirlooms, they seem to have natural immunity to diseases that ravage newer varieties. They have been grown in this area since the early 1900’s. Almost forgotten for a while, they started making a comeback a few years ago. And for good reason. There has never been another apple variety that has been able to duplicate what Wolf River has to offer.
Wolf River apples are huge, many weighing in at around a pound a piece. Which means that when making sauce, it takes a fraction of the time for peeling and coring. The tree itself has a hulk of a trunk, which is great because it is needed to support the heavy load on the branches of these trees.
Wolf River blooms late in the spring, but none-the-less it seems like we have a cold spell every year just at that time here in Garrett County. However, my Wolf River apple trees still seem to have a bumper crop anyway, though if there is a heavy frost there may be more smaller apples on the tree.
If you like home-made applesauce, you’ll love Wolf River. They are a sauce, cider, and cooking apple. They are not a fresh eating apple unless you intend to dip them in some sort of sweetened dip because they have pucker-power that would put a lemon to shame. None-the-less, they are crisp and juicy and beautiful to look at with glossy green/red skin.
We all know Yellow Transparent is the applesauce apple, but Wolf River is a very close second. This is one apple you will want to add to your collection!
Pollinate with Summer Rambo, Crimson Crisp, Fuji, Golden Delicious, GoldRush, Nova Spy, and Northern Spy.
