Hawkeye Apple Tree

OUR STORY

The Hawkeye Apple is the original ancestor of the modern Red Delicious apple. It first sprouted as a chance seedling in the 1870s or 1880s in an orchard in Peru, Madison County, Iowa, planted by farmer Jesse Hiatt. Hiatt originally tried to chop the unwanted sprout down twice, but let it grow when it returned and named it the "Hawkeye" in honor of his home state.In 1892, Stark Brothers Nursery bought the rights to the apple after Hiatt won a fruit contest, renamed it "Stark Delicious," and eventually marketed it globally as the Red Delicious. While modern Red Delicious varieties were heavily bred for thick skin and deep color at the expense of flavor, the original Hawkeye apple is prized by heirloom growers for being sweet, juicy, tender, and far more flavorful than industrial strains.• Flavor: Richly sweet with a pleasant, old-fashioned complexity. It features a mellow, fruity sweetness balanced by a very mild, sub-acid tang. • Aroma: Highly aromatic, carrying a traditional, floral apple scent that fills the room when sliced.The Hawkeye apple offers a vastly superior, complex taste profile compared to the modern grocery store Red Delicious, which lost its flavor over decades of breeding for appearance. Grows in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 through 9. The Hawkeye apple tree has a midseason bloom period. Requires a different cross-pollination partner that blooms at the same time to successfully set fruit. Consider the following for pollination partner: Gala, Honeycrsip, Grimes Golden, White Pearmain, Yellow Delicious, Liberty. Trees are bench grafted 1/4-3/16 inch diameter and 1 1/2 to 2 feet tall when shipped.

INGREDIENTS