A TREE GROWS IN ELMHURST How the Newtown Pippin apple varietal got its groove back WORDS J.A. STRUB PHOTOS MEGAN MARTIN 22 REVIVAL 2018 edible QUEENS EdibleQueens.com 23 Opposite: a handful of Newtown Pippin apples; Below: a student walks through the apple orchard at Queens College; Newton Pippins for sale at Manhattan’s Union Square greenmarket. n the 17th century, when New York was still New Am- sterdam, residents flocked eastward seeking respite from downtown’s crowded squalor. In contrast to swampy Lower Manhattan, the glacial deposit of Long Island presented a relative agricultural panacea. Beginning in 1652, a stream of European settlers—first Dutch, then English—began populating what became Newtown. Now called Elmhurst, Newtown remains a point of entry for Queens’ newest arrivals. Strikingly, the neighborhood’s food his- Itory extends to its early days of European settlement. While one can find lychee, jackfruit and soursop in the markets of today’s Elmhurst, it’s a humble apple that symbolizes Newtown’s colonial past. The story of apples in Newtown begins with the Rev. John Moore, who established the Newtown First Episcopal Church, which remains Queens’ oldest congregation. The reverend’s son, Gershom, later planted over 500 apple trees on the estate’s grounds. One such cultivar from the Moore orchard—the Newtown Pippin—eventually rose to national fame. Small, green and irregularly shaped, the Newtown Pip- pin does not conform to contemporary aesthetic expectations. It is, however, a versatile fruit that can be used for cider or in desserts, pro- viding it is adequately cellared. A freshly picked Pippin contains excess starch that, in time, is converted into sugar. This quality rendered the varietal well suited for overseas shipment. EdibleQueens.com 23 fashion, so did cider. As grain-based liquors fell in price, the nation turned away from cider and toward whiskey. It took over a century for cider to regain its place in America’s bev- erage pantheon. In the early 1980s, apple grower Stephen Wood made a radical decision to replace thousands of McIntosh trees—rendered unprofitable by competition from industrial growers—with heirloom cidering varietals. Fast-forward to 2011, when the New York Cider Association hosted the Big Apple’s first Cider Week. Jennifer Lim and Benjamin Sandler attended that inaugural fes- tival. Months beforehand, they had opened The Queens Kickshaw (now shuttered) in Astoria. “After the festival, we fell in love with cider,” says Lim. “We saw the potential, and were very surprised by how little we knew about it.” Lim and Sandler developed a cider concept at The Queens Kick- shaw for several years, adding more options to their bottle list by the month and witnessing cider purchases rise from 5% to 25% of bever- age sales over a three-year period. “It was a very organic process,” says Sandler. “As our knowledge and experience with cider grew, so too did the market, the distribution networks and public curiosity.” The couple’s fondness for cider culminated in their opening of Wassail in Manhattan, the city’s first cider-focused bar. “We were the first, but we were surprised nobody had done it sooner,” says Sandler. In spite of the seeming increase in demand for high-quality ciders, Wassail struggled. Despite ambitious educational programming and serving some of New York’s most exciting ciders, Wassail’s doors closed in January. Undeterred, Lim and Sandler remain hopeful. “Cider isn’t going away. It’s respected in fine-dining circles, and is also beloved as a session beverage. Producers continue to innovate, distribution networks continue to grow and consumers continue to demand new and exciting products,” says Lim. Not far from the site of the Newtown Pippin’s ancestral grounds, another husband-and-wife team is reviving New York’s cider tradition on the production end. Descendant Cider Company, founded in 2013, is the first cidery to operate within New York City. Jahil Maplestone and Alexandra Fisk run Descendant out of a single room in a mixed- An illustrated map of Queens, showing the village of Newtown. use industrial complex in Maspeth. “I’ve built everything in here myself,” says Maplestone, gesturing around the small, cluttered space. “We are big proponents of the DIY As the first generation of Newtown Pippins came of age, America’s ethic. Why spend $200,000 on a press when I can make it by hand for founders became some of the varietal’s earliest devotees. Thomas a fraction of that?” Jefferson planted over four-dozen Pippin trees on Monticello’s In tandem with cider’s popularity, the Newtown Pippin has made grounds between 1769 and 1814. As he represented the new republic an unlikely comeback. Environmental activist Erik Baard first came abroad, Benjamin Franklin introduced the Pippin to English elites as across the apple in the early aughts while researching strategies for an exemplar of American agricultural prowess. Queen Victoria was remediating the polluted Newtown Creek. so taken with the varietal as to temporarily waive import tariffs on “My initial vision was to plant a few heritage trees on the banks Virginia apples. of the creek,” says Baard. “It never happened, but it initiated an enor- The demise of the Newtown Pippin began with the two-fold loss mous project to bring the Newtown Pippin back to Queens, which of its name. In the antebellum South, the varietal became so closely we’ve done successfully.” associated with Jefferson’s home county that it was known as the “Al- Over the past decade, Baard has forged partnerships with the New bemarle Pippin.” By 1897, Newtown itself had been re-christened as York Restoration Project, Slow Food NYC, Green Apple Cleaners and Elmhurst. Unsightly and subject to russetting, the Newtown Pippin others to promote restoration of the Newtown Pippin and its celebra- was hardly poised for commercial success. As the Pippin fell out of tion as a point of local heritage. 24 REVIVAL 2018 edible QUEENS EdibleQueens.com 25 “WHERE ELSE BUT IN QUEENS WOULD ONE EXPECT TO FIND TREES THAT HAVE GROWN HERE FOR GENERATIONS MINGLING WITH NEW ARRIVALS HOPING TO SINK DEEP ROOTS AND LAY THEIR OFFSPRING ON MORE FERTILE SOIL?” A glass of Descendant’s cider at Fifth Hammer Brewing Co. With Baard at the helm, Gotham Orchards planted hundreds of have grown here for generations mingling with new arrivals hoping heirloom apple saplings across the borough, including at Elmhurst’s to sink deep roots and lay their offspring on more fertile soil? Perhaps First Episcopal Church, where the Moore legacy began. The largest we can learn something from the story of the apple, a fruit that has grove of Pippins is at the Queens College Arboretum, the result of a origins in a faraway land but is still quintessentially American, and student-led initiative. here to stay. To pollinate Queens College’s Pippins, Baard planted them along- side varietals from Kazakhstan’s Tianshan mountains, the apple’s J.A. Strub is a resident of Jackson Heights and a graduate of Hunter College, ancestral homeland. “These Kazakh apples are genetically interesting. CUNY. By day, he works at Queens Community House as an eviction preven- They do pretty well here,” Baard says. tion specialist. After hours, J.A. plays in various musical groups around New Where else but in Queens would one expect to find trees that York and writes about food, faith and urbanism. EdibleQueens.com 25 .