Friday, April 24, 2009

The Newtown Pippin, the Nation's Founding Apple

On Earth Day, 2009, Slow Food NYC helped plant Newtown Pippin apple trees at three Harvest Time schools; the Earth School, Automotive High School, and Juan Morel Campos.
The Newtown Pippin is the only American heirloom apple native to New York City, having been first picked on a Newtown (now Elmhurst) farm in Queens County in the early 1700s. The green, great-tasting apple was a favorite of Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, who planted them at Monticello and wrote to James Madison from Paris, "They have no apple to compare with our Newtown Pippin." The Newtwon Pippin is aboard the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste, our bio-diversity program to recognize and help preserve foods in danger of being lost. In 2007, Slow Food NYC donated Newtown Pippin apple trees to three Greenmarket farmers to help restore our apple to the tables of our city. This year, with the backing of Green Apple Cleaners, a group of allied organizations, including Slow Food NYC, has undertaken a multi-year project to plant 500 Newtown Pippin apple trees in parks and community and school gardens.

To learn more about Newtown Pippins and to obtain a Newtown Pippin tree (and a companion Honey Crisp apple tree for pollination) for your school or community garden, visit www.newtownpippin.org.

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