Pennsylvania’s most-grown apple isn’t one you’re likely to find at the supermarket — but that doesn’t mean you haven’t eaten it before.
York Imperials, also known simply as “Yorks,” have a longstanding reputation as trusty processing apples. So while they probably won’t reach your fruit bowl this fall, some may already be tucked inside your pantry or fridge in the form of sauce, juice, vinegar, cider, or butter.
The heirloom variety — sometimes called an “antique apple” — dates back approximately two centuries, when a York County nurseryman is believed to have developed it using a seedling from a local tree.
Its popularity has endured among the region’s growers. An estimated 26% of all apples cultivated in the Keystone State last year were Yorks, according to a report from industry group USApple.
When they’re first picked, Yorks taste tart. But they keep for a long time, and as they ripen, they “gradually get a sweeter, sugary taste to them,” said Cindy Heller, the executive director and curator of the National Apple Museum near Gettysburg.
The oblong, thick-skinned fruits, which can be spotted or striped, aren’t known for their visual appeal, she noted. (“Lopsided” is a common descriptor on orchards’ websites.)
“When you’re looking at it, if you had that and you had a very pretty Gala apple or Honeycrisp beside it, you’d be picking one of [the latter] without even a second thought on it, if you didn’t know what the York Imperial could do for you,” Heller said.
Casual apple snackers, however, are rarely presented with that choice. Nearly all York apples — around 97% — go directly to food processors, per USApple data.
York Imperials “developed that little niche” in the industry a long time ago, said David Peters, president of Peters Orchards in Adams County. The variety is among the top four apple crops grown at his family’s fruit and vegetable farm, and the bulk of the crop goes to Knouse Foods, a nearby farmer cooperative that makes products like Musselman’s applesauce and Lucky Leaf pie fillings.
The apple’s long shelf life has helped build its positive reputation, Peters said. Yorks are harvested late in the season, and long before the advent of modern cold storage techniques, they could last months without going bad.
The fruit’s “versatile” texture is another reason for its popularity, Peters said.
“It’s hard, it slices well,” Peters said. “When you cook it, it keeps its shape, but yet also is kind of appealing where it’s not like a real firm apple. It still gets kind of soft in the slices.”
York Imperials also blend well with other apples, he added, and can act as a thickener for applesauce. The variety’s texture is so “distinct,” Peters said, that he can tell when he’s eating applesauce whether the blend is “more heavily to York.”
The apple’s origins are typically traced back to Jonathan Jessop, a York County clockmaker and horticulturist. Per Heller, the story goes that Jessop learned about the fruit through John Kline, a man who owned a farm in Hellam Township in the 1820s. Kline noticed that children would snack on the apples that had fallen from a tree on his property, even into the springtime — when most apples would’ve rotted after sitting there all winter.
Jessop took grafts from the tree and developed it in his nursery near York. The result “took off like crazy” at Quaker auctions, Heller said.
The apple was known by a few different names, she said. Some dubbed it “Jonathan’s Fine Winter Apple” since it could be stored and consumed through the cold months; a 19th-century merchant marketed it as the “Imperial of Keepers” for the same reason. Eventually, “York Imperial” stuck.
An October 1899 item in a Kansas newspaper described the York Imperial’s “growing fame,” noting that the “good shipper” was catching on with farmers beyond Pennsylvania — along the mid-Atlantic and into Midwest — and was being sent off to Europe.
“It traveled well,” Heller said. “You could pack it in barrels or in baskets, transport it, and you had almost no bruising, no harm to the apple.”
Nowadays, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Of the estimated 3.7 million bushels of York apples cultivated across the United States last season, 2.7 million — weighing around 113 million pounds — were grown in Pennsylvania. The other million primarily come from Virginia and New York.
Growing Yorks can come with challenges. The trees are biennial, Peters said, meaning that one year, they’ll yield a large amount of fruit, but the next, “the tree kind of takes a year off.”
That trait isn’t great for business, he said, but it is manageable. Since the York Imperial variety has been around for such a long time, its quirks are well-known among growers, so farmers have tried-and-true techniques for handling them, like applying tree acids. Newer types of fruit, on the other hand, can be wild cards.
“As a grower, we taste these wonderful apples each winter at different shows and conventions,” Peters said, pointing to the many Honeycrisp hybrids as an example. “But we don’t always know how they’re going to grow … we don’t always know how it’s going to be received by the public.”
But when it comes to Yorks and other heirloom varieties like Cox’s Orange Pippin or Idared, he said, “we know we have a market” of folks who will seek out those particular varieties from year to year.
For apple enthusiasts trying to get ahold of some fresh Yorks, roadside stands or farm stores are probably the best place to look, Peters said. Yorks are typically harvested throughout October.
The fruit can be made into a good, thick homemade applesauce, he said, especially if you don’t puree them completely and leave in some chunks. Or you can just snack on them.
“It’s honestly not a bad eating apple,” Peters said, “around December, January after it’s been in storage a little bit.”