Description
Ramsdell Sweet (also known as Hurlbut, Ramsdell’s Red, or Red Pumpkin Sweet) is small, conical, and mostly wine-red in color, and its soft firm flesh is mildly sweet. Early reviews of this apple were decidedly mixed. In his 1833 book, The New American Orchardist, William Kenrick of Newton, Massachusetts, wrote that Ramsdell Sweet was a “prodigious” bearer, and some “have set out whole orchards of this fruit for swine, so great is its productiveness.” In Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits (1922), U. P. Hedrick asserted that the trees did not produce large enough crops to be commercially successful.
Discovered: 1838, Connecticut
Parentage: Unknown
Harvest: None
History
Ramsdell Sweet was discovered by Rev. Hezekiah S. Ramsdell (or Ramsdel) of West Thompson, Connecticut, around 1838.