Newt Grindle
Late Summer-Early Fall. Chance seedling. Blue Hill, ME(Hancock County), about 1936. Phil Norris, Blue Hill apple grower and nephew of legendary fruit explorer the late Ira Glackens, introduced this apple to me a couple of years ago. Newt Grindle, while working as caretaker on the Byers Farm in Blue Hill, discovered a wild seedling and decided to cultivate it as a pig apple. Before long he realized that the fruit was too good for the pigs. The bright red-occasionally almost orange-fruit is large, oblate and has a waxy coating which seems to naturally deter insects. The flesh is yellow, coarse, exceptionally juicy and has a mild taste. Keeps remarkably well for an early apple. The tree has a naturally low and spreading habit and bears heavy annual crops. Newt Grindle has never been grown outside the Bill Hill area. As others begin to trial it we're looking forward to seeing how it grows and fruits around the state and beyond.