< Previous20 NORTHEAST The Cayuga duck may be the most flavorsome domesticated strain of duck bred in America, though the precise origins of the Cayuga have never been ascertained. Gourmands in the 1800s judged the wild canvasback that fed on water celery as the paragon of duck flavor. Mr. J. R. Page of Cayuga County, New York, the foremost breeder of the Cayuga during the Civil War era, first encountered a flock on the Seneca River in New York State in 1838. Page presumed that the wild Black duck must have been an ancestor, but later confessed that he held no reliable information about its origins. The Cayuga duck was bred extensively in New York and Massachusetts by 1857, and nationally known through the 1850s. In 1874, the American Poultry Association registered the Cayuga and defined for it a “Standard of Excellence” to guide breeding. One poultry breeder explained why he chose to raise the Cayuga over the more famous domestic Rouen and Aylesbury ducks: “The Cayuga duck is hardy, good size, and for the table is superior to all CAYUGACAYUGA Duck US ORIGIN OR MOST PREVALENT IN New York CHARACTERISTICS Black with green on head, neck, and wing, flavorful breast meat CLOSE RELATIVES Mallard duck, Black duck NOTABLE PRODUCERS Metzer Farms and Backyard Poultry (ducklings) 4P_SF_AOT.indd 204P_SF_AOT.indd 2012/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNORTHEAST 21 other ducks or poultry of any sort: flesh quite dark and high flavored. If well fed they become very fat.” Modern poultry raisers liken the taste of the grilled red-fleshed breast to roast beef. In terms of flavor, the Redheaded duck ranked second; the Black duck, third. These game birds were deeply savory and fatty, infused with the richness of their wild diet. In addition, the Cayuga was a prolific egg layer, dropping about 90 eggs each spring and up to 60 or 70 in the fall. Their eggs vary in color, presenting as black and gray early in the laying season and white late in the season. In the 1870s and 1880s, the Cayuga became a commodity duck. Its quality as a roasting bird inspired a following among farmers, but its docility and relative immobility clinched its place as one of the great duck breeds produced in America. The Cayuga duck put on weight quickly and in a very short time was incapable of flying more than 3 or 4 inches off the ground in short bursts. In terms of farmyard management, the Cayuga proved a much easier fowl to keep than the Muscovy or Pekin ducks. It is also a capable forager, and if one were to choose a variety for a pet, the Cayuga would be an excellent choice. The appearance of the Cayuga duck has changed over time. It seems to have begun as a dull black and brown bird of medium size with a white collar or white flecks on the neck and breast. Its head, neck, and wing feathers had a green tinge, and the legs were short. 19th-century breeders selected for deeper black coloring and fewer white mottles, and the West India Black duck was interbred with it to give a greater gloss to the green sheen of its head and wing feathers. When the Pekin duck was introduced in the 1890s and began taking a significant market share of the roasting duck category, breeders fought back by interbreeding the Cayuga with the Rouen duck to create a bigger, The 1890s were a decade obsessed with white food and ill-conceived notions of purity, making it difficult to compete with the remarkably pale carcass of the white Pekin duck. The dark-plumed Cayuga was reckoned rather sooty looking in comparison. 4P_SF_AOT.indd 214P_SF_AOT.indd 2112/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AM22 NORTHEAST meatier bird. Unfortunately, these attempts at remaining competitive on the commodity market were an insufficient countermeasure. The 1890s were a decade obsessed with white food and ill-conceived notions of purity, making it difficult to compete with the remarkably pale carcass of the white Pekin duck. The dark-plumed Cayuga was reckoned rather sooty looking in comparison. With startling rapidity, the light-colored Pekin duck became the domestic duck of commerce. The number of breeding pairs of the Cayuga dwindled with every passing decade. Today, the Cayuga duck is listed as “threatened” on the Livestock Conservancy’s Conservation Priority List. This means that there are fewer than 1,000 breeding birds in the US, with 10 or fewer primary breeding flocks. The Cayuga duck is also globally endangered. While it’s near impossible to source Cayuga duck meat, it is possible to buy live Cayuga ducklings. Some suppliers also offer fertile Cayuga duck eggs. Only those lucky enough to know a heritage poultry operation stocking the Cayuga duck can put this rare variety on the table. 4P_SF_AOT.indd 224P_SF_AOT.indd 2212/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNORTHEAST 23 The Early Rose potato combined four great virtues— ample size, quick maturation, excellent flavor, and productivity—to become the most important potato created in the US in the latter half of the 19th century. The potato was discovered by Albert Bresee of Hubbardtown, Vermont, in 1861 and captured his attention because it was ready for harvest almost two weeks earlier than the most popular early potato then on the market. It would prove to be the horticultural sensation of the late 1860s and remain popular for a great deal longer than most of its potato peers. The story of the Early Rose potato gives us a good look at the exciting world of seed sales and plant swapping at the time. Bresee experimented with the potato for three years before selling his entire seed stock to potato broker D. S. Heffron of Utica, New York. Heffron built up the numbers of plants by sending some to John P. Gray in the hopes of winning his enthusiastic endorsement of the variety. He EARLY EARLY ROSEROSE Potato US ORIGIN OR MOST PREVALENT IN Vermont CHARACTERISTICS Rose color, quick maturation, productivity USDA PLANT HARDINESS ZONES 5b–8b CLOSE RELATIVE Burbank potato NOTABLE PRODUCERS The Kenosha Potato Project, The Seed Savers Exchange 4P_SF_AOT.indd 234P_SF_AOT.indd 2312/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AM24 NORTHEAST gave the variety an attractive name—Early Rose—and then cashed out when he sold his supply to the Conovers in New Jersey and, more significantly, to B. K. Bliss and Sons, who would make the Early Rose a pillar of their potato catalog. Bliss would become the greatest broker of potatoes in the United States, and the Conovers sold seed potatoes of Early Rose potatoes to seedsmen and the general public in spring of 1868, when potato lovers across the country fell in love with the variety. The first professional response to the performance of this variety can be found in the 1869 Ferre, Batchelder & Co. seed catalog: “This new and fine variety has proved all that was claimed for it when offered for the first time the past Spring. It is very productive, and reports of a yield of one hundred fold is an everyday occurrence. Two to three weeks earlier than the Early Goodrich. The tubers are quite smooth, nearly cylindrical, varying to flattish, largest at the center, tapering gradually towards each end; skin a dull rose color; flesh, white, and one of the best flavored varieties in cultivation. Highly recommended for early marketing on account of its large and uniform size and productiveness.” Early trials documented Early Rose generating 558 bushels per acre of potatoes— about five times the recorded average yield of potatoes in the late 1800s. The success of the Early Rose was explosive. In 1873, five years after first offering the Early Rose for sale, the potato “attained a popularity unrivaled in the history of the potato. It has now become the standard variety for earliness, quality and productiveness.” During this early period of cultivation, rumors floated in newspapers that good Early Rose potatoes retailed for $100 per bushel, with a 12-bushel limit per purchaser. One curiosity of the Early Rose was that many plant breeders immediately began improvement programs despite its great performance. B. K. Bliss even employed a scheme of sensory testing to determine a better tasting, more starchy potato. He branded his better-tasting red potato the Extra Early Vermont. The Red Bliss potato, which now enjoys popularity, took the genetics in another In 1873, five years after first offering the Early Rose for sale, the potato “attained a popularity unrivaled in the history of the potato.” 4P_SF_AOT.indd 244P_SF_AOT.indd 2412/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNORTHEAST 25 direction, making the white flesh of the potato more waxy than starchy; it would prevail in the contest for public favor. The reign of potato varieties as premier cultivars tends to be relatively brief—20 years is reckoned a good run. Disease vulnerability often dethroned the top potato. An important component of the success of the Early Rose was its resistance to the fungal disease anthracnose, though it was unfortunately vulnerable to potato blight and prone to viral potato diseases—the same maladies that doomed the Mercer potato, the most popular American variety of the first half of the 19th century. Yet the virtues of the Early Rose potato were so pronounced that the varieties that ruled in its wake were often genetically derived from the Early Rose. Luther Burbank’s famous Burbank potato was a seedling—even more productive than its parent, and more field hardy. The cooking qualities of the Early Rose potato inspired such respect that the variety remained a commodity potato into the early 1930s. After World War II, when commercial production of slips and seed for the Early Rose ceased due to its vulnerabilities, individual gardeners maintained the variety. It survives in most of the world’s major potato breeding collections maintained by governments and universities, and in the research plots of seed companies. The Early Rose has become exceedingly scarce in American heirloom seed collections as viral infections tainted some lines in the US, forcing growers to look to Canada for disease-free plant material. The primary issue with reviving the Early Rose at any scale is its relative lack of resistance to plant- damaging pathogens. But we should hope for a more robust restoration of this variety because it is the well-loved and reigning potato of the time when major haute cuisine chefs made potato recipes central to their vegetable cookery. The Early Rose potato provided a flavorful foundation for countless significant recipes of the 1880s and 1890s, the apogee of early American fine dining. The potato remains central to vegetable dishes across the United States, and bringing this iconic and historic potato variety back to the table may serve to bolster the concept of American cuisine. 4P_SF_AOT.indd 254P_SF_AOT.indd 2512/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AM26 NORTHEAST An early American apple, the Esopus Spitzenburg was a seedling found by a New York Dutch farmer on Esopus Creek in the Hudson Valley. The Spitzenburg won fame as a dessert apple, one that was eaten uncooked from the hand. Its complex aromatics added dimension to ciders, and its body allowed it to be a useful canning apple throughout the 19th century. For an heirloom variety, it displays a noteworthy versatility, and contemporary sources classify it as a “culinary apple”—that is, one adaptable to a range of uses other than eating out of hand. The Esopus Spitzenburg was first named in a 1769 advertisement for apple varieties in the October issue of the New York Gazette. Interestingly, the ad also notes a “Newtown Spitzenburg” (New- town was a settlement in Queens), suggesting that the apple had been grown long enough in New York and was well-esteemed enough by the late 1760s for orchardists to have developed a variant. After the American Revolution, pomologist and nurseryman ESOPUS ESOPUS SPITZENBURGSPITZENBURG Apple US ORIGIN OR MOST PREVALENT IN New York CHARACTERISTICS Crisp, juicy, luscious fragrance USDA PLANT HARDINESS ZONES 6a–8b CLOSE RELATIVE Jonathan apple NOTABLE PRODUCERS FRUIT: Albemarle CiderWorks, Salt Spring Apple Company, Out on a Limb Apples, Three Springs Fruit Farm CIDER: Stormalong Cider, Eve’s Cidery, and Hudson Valley Farmhouse Cider TREES: Trees of Antiquity, Orange Pippin Trees, Fedco Seeds, Century Farm Orchards 4P_SF_AOT.indd 264P_SF_AOT.indd 2612/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNORTHEAST 27 William Prince listed the Esopus Spitzenburg with the Newton Pippin as the only two named apples in his advertisements of fruit trees. By the end of the 18th century, Prince had spread the apple’s fame well beyond New York State. Its fame was established before the formation of the United States, and it has remained—along with the Jonathan, the Winesap, and the Newton Pippin—as one of the founding apples of American orchards. In Spencer Ambrose Beach’s 1905 classic Apples of New York, the fruit is carefully described and illustrated as “medium to large; pretty uniform in size and shape. Form rather broad and flat at the base, varying from oblong rounding towards the cavity to roundish ovate or to roundish inclined to conic; somewhat irregular and obscurely ribbed. . . . Skin touch, sometimes waxy, slightly rough- ened by the russet dots, deep rich yellow often almost completely covered with bright red inconspicuously striped with darker red, in the sun deepening to a very dark, almost purplish blush, marked with pale yellow and russet dots which are small and numerous. . . . Flesh tinged with yellow, firm, moderately fine, crisp, rather tender, juicy, aromatic, sprightly subacid, very good to best.” OR GANIC v s. HEIRLOOM Because of Esopus Spitzenburg’s many vulnerabilities to disease and fungus, you will almost never encounter organically grown Spitzenburg apples. They will all have been subjected to some kind of chemical regimen. If you choose to grow the trees yourself, you will likely resort to a nonorganic intervention in order to attain a crop. This is an unfortunate circumstance found in growing heirloom apples and peaches. Its fame was established before the formation of the United States, and it has remained—along with the Jonathan, the Winesap and the Newton Pippin—as one of the founding apples of American orchards. 4P_SF_AOT.indd 274P_SF_AOT.indd 2712/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AM28 NORTHEAST Indeed, the Esopus Spitzenburg apple boasts a complex flavor, a sugary apple with a spice edge and a good balance of acid that plays on the tongue in the somewhat grainy texture. The sugar intensifies when the apple is stored over winter. With the variety maturing late in the fall season, the prudent grower began feasting on the apples at Thanksgiving and tried to keep some in supply in cold storage until spring. But the Esopus Spitzenburg has never been a commodity apple. The annual production per tree tends to be modest, and the size of the apples depends heavily on weather and sunlight hours. The trees themselves are slow growers and have slender twigs. But it was the trees’ vulnerability to fungal scab and apple canker that turned many orchards sickly over the 19th century and inhibited new plantings. It attracts every pest and pathogen that visits American orchards, and finding one untouched by beasts, birds, insects, scale, and canker can pose a challenge. While the variety did not find success on the commercial market, the flavor was so exceptional that a substantial number of growers keep yard trees. Indeed, some devotees—Thomas Jefferson included—consider it the finest- tasting apple in North America, so there have always been plantings despite being shunned by commercial operations since the end of the 19th century. Those who keep the tree now graft it onto more disease-resistant stocks. The rise of the artisan cider movement at the end of the 20th century led to a renewed interest in old apple varieties traditionally used in the coppice, and a number of cideries embraced the apple. Because of Thomas Jefferson’s particular attachment to the variety, historic Monticello has always supplied the public with saplings, so that people can understand the enthusiasm of the nation’s third president for this unique fruit. 4P_SF_AOT.indd 284P_SF_AOT.indd 2812/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNORTHEAST 29 The Fairfax strawberry is the creation of George Darrow, one of the greatest small fruit breeders in the US during the first half of the 20th century. A cross between the Royal Sovereign and Howard 17 strawberries, the Fairfax came into existence at the USDA experimental station at Glenn Dale, Maryland. Darrow fine-tuned the strawberry’s genetics from 1923 until 1928, when he launched the variety and won a devoted following, despite its middling size. 1933 marked its widespread adoption by commercial growers. In 1979, horticulturist Donald Hyde Scott in his Strawberry Varieties of the United States suggested that the greatest berry creation of the 20th century was the Fairfax strawberry, on account of its fresh eating and dessert quality. The Fairfax strawberry combined all of the qualities esteemed by strawberry fanciers. It was juicy, mildly sour, and fragrant without being cloyingly perfumy. It did not degrade in texture when frozen, and it did not lose flavor or fragrance when cooked. Its taste was FAIRFAXFAIRFAX Strawberry US ORIGIN OR MOST PREVALENT IN Maryland REGION: Southeast CHARACTERISTICS Solid heart, beautiful flavor USDA PLANT HARDINESS ZONES 7a–9b CLOSE RELATIVE Royal Sovereign strawberry NOTABLE PRODUCER Edible Landscaping 4P_SF_AOT.indd 294P_SF_AOT.indd 2912/12/22 11:39 AM12/12/22 11:39 AMNext >