Taliaferro (apple)

Infobox Cultivar | name ="Malus domestica" 'Taliaferro'


image_width = 250px
ancestry = 'Unknown'
cultivar = 'Taliaferro'
origin = flagicon|United States Virginia, pre-1778

The Taliaferro (pr. "Tolliver"), Robinson or Robertson was a small-sized apple grown at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson. This cultivar appears to be extinct, though some horticulturalists assert that the "Highland County" cultivar may be related, or even the same cultivar under a different name. [ [http://www.twinleaf.org/articles/taliaferro.html] - Description from Peter J. Hatch, "Director of Gardens & Grounds" for the Monticello museum.]

Jefferson called the variety "Taliaferro" in reference to a Major Taliaferro from whom he got his first samples of the fruit. Taliaferro himself claimed that the apples came from a farm owned by the Robertson or Robinson family, hence the other varietal names.

Jefferson stated the Taliaferro apple was very juicy and good for eating. He praised it as the best cider apple he had tasted, producing a hard cider similar to wine or Champagne. In 1835, a Willaim Kenrick described the fruits as being small, only 1-2 inches in diameter, with white, red-streaked skin. Kenrick claimed that the apples were unfit for eating, but reaffirmed their value in cidermaking.

See also

*Heirloom plants

References

Sources

*cite book |title=The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello |last=Hatch |first=Peter J. |year= 1998 |publisher= University of Virginia |location= United States |isbn= 0813917468 |pages= 222
*cite book |title=Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book |last=Jefferson, Thomas |first=- Edwin Morris Betts, ed. |year= 1944 |publisher= American Philosophical Society |location= United States |pages= 704