Intensely flavored unusual dessert variety, in the same class as Frostbite, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Sweet Sixteen and Wickson. In a good year, the dense juicy flesh can be unmistakably licorice flavored. Good enough to win late fall taste tests. Still firm and flavorful in late December. Medium-large roundish fruit, partly greenish-yellow with a orange-red blush and an assortment of russet patches and netting.
Presumably a wild seedling discovered by Gibson (1905-1974) one of the founders of The North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX). A year after his death at the annual NAFEX meeting in Geneva, NY, his close friend Fred Ashworth organized the effort to change the apple’s name to honor the long-time fruit explorer. Blooms midseason. Z4.
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