Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers and Cooks by Tom Burford.
An essential resource for anyone interested in learning more about America’s national fruit.
Preview the book here via Timber Press.
Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers and Cooks by Tom Burford.
An essential resource for anyone interested in learning more about America’s national fruit.
Preview the book here via Timber Press.

Exploring Apples.
Our recent Cider (and Apple) Road Trip to Virginia sparked the desire to more actively explore apple varieties.
Becoming familiar with the unique qualities of individual apple varieties – through study and sampling – enhances the experience of drinking craft cider, allowing you to understand and taste how the fruit itself contributes to shaping a craft ciders’ profile.
Apple-centric highlights of our Virginia cider tour included:
A guided apple tasting at Vintage Virginia Apples/Albemarle CiderWorks, followed by orchard exploring to view the raw materials of cider still on the tree. Apples sampled and spied included: Dolgo, Hewes Crab, Pitmaston Pineapple, Razor Russet and Arkansas Black.
Charlotte and Chuck Shelton of Albemarle CiderWorks’ Virginia Cider Making demonstration tasting at The Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello. Fresh pressed ‘sweet’ cider from Vintage Virginia Apples extracted via an antique manual cider press, and enjoyed in the midst of Thomas Jefferson’s restored experimental vegetable garden.
Three lively and informative workshops: Heirloom Apples & Artisanal Cheese Tasting, Apple Varieties for Organic Orchards, and Apple Varieties for Cider & Pie Making with ‘Professor Apple’, the esteemed orchard consultant, apple educator and advocate – Tom Burford.
And of course, securing copies of Tom Burford’s new book, Apples of North America: 192 Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks.
Follow the links below for additional information about the annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, and this years workshops. Plan a visit in 2014.
Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello
Virginia Cider Making
Chuck & Charlotte Shelton
Heirloom Apple & Artisanal Cheese Tasting
Tom Burford & Gail Hobbs-Page
Apple Varieties for Organic Orchards
Tom Burford
Apple Varieties for Cider- & Pie-Making
Tom Burford

Collecting Cider.
Our recent Cider (and Apple) Road Trip to Virginia involved rigorous cider tasting, and afforded the opportunity to collect an extensive array of some of the finest Virginia ciders currently available. These apple elixirs were carefully transported to United States of Cider HQ and await further study. Expect upcoming posts about our cider tasting experiences and detailed Virginia cider reviews.
Virginia ciders to be explored:
Albemarle CiderWorks
Castle Hill Cider
Blue Bee Cider
Foggy Ridge Cider
Potter’s Craft Cider
A few non-Virginia apple ferments were sampled and collected as well. These will also be thoroughly examined and the results reported.
Millstone Cellars Cider
Great Shoals Cider
*note: NY apples (above photo) with Virginia, and Maryland, ciders.




NAL note:
Alternative variety name(s): Albemarle Pippin; Charlottesville is an independent city located adjacent to Albemarle County