Albert Etter's Apples

1944 Orchard & Garden Book

The 1944 "Orchard & Garden Book" announced the introduction of six varieties of apples bred by Albert Etter. Over 45 years of work culminated in these seven varieties that were introduced by the California Nursery Company: Alaska, All Gold (Etter's Gold), Humboldt Crab, Jonwin, Pink Pearl, Wickson, and Crimson Gold. The Etter's apple trees could be purchased for an extra 50 cents.

The orchard record books list a couple of varieties that were not introduced: Octo, Shinn, St. Francis, and Blackberry and many more. Altogether there might have been 40 or so that were tested. Many were red-fleshed.

How is it that the Etter apples were introduced by the California Nursery? 

There seems to be a relationship with George C. Roeding and Albert Etter that needs to be run down. 

The California Nursery folks, under George Roeding, Jr.,  came all the way up to Ettersburg to meet with Etter several times. Several plantings or graftings were done starting in 1931.

The Beginning

Sometime before 1900 (~1897), Albert Etter obtained 600 varieties of apples from the US and Europe with the help of Charles Howard Shinn at the direction of E.J. Wickson.  

Shinn, as you may know, was raised just across Alameda Creek from the California Nursery. He worked for the UC Agricultural Experiment Station from 1890-1901, so sometime during that time, these 600 varieties were located. Some were obtained from from the Amador and Paso Robles experiment stations (TH). Were some of the varieties also from John Rock's Mother Orchard? That would certainly have been convenient to obtain many from one place. Plus John Rock and E.J. Wickson were good friends and it was very conveniently located. At any rate, Etter had his starting point of 600 apple varieties obtained from somewhere.

Etter wrote about his grand apple experiment in 1922 in the Pacific Rural Press. From those 600 varieties, he obtained 12,000 to 15,000 seedlings. To make a point of how many trees that was, he said that these apples trees, each a different variety, planted 30 feet apart would extend 90 miles. It would take the "speed limit with an automobile, two and a half hours to ride by". That's a fast 27 MPH!

Sympathy for the labeler

Sadly so many people focus on the mislabeling of the Etter's apples at the end of the California Nursery Company. What gardener has not also suffered such troubles of keeping their trees labeled and cannot feel some sympathy? Indeed Etter admitted in 1906 that "The goats, shuffled the metal labels on some 400 of these while they stood in the nursery so I am not in a position to vouch for the correctness of the name in some instances, but I believe these I am sending are correctly named as per tag they arrived under. "

Where to Find Your Etter's Apples

Where do you get all the varieties sold in the California Nursery Catalog? Start with Greenmantle Nursery apple Master List.

You can also acquire scion wood for some Etter varieties at CRFG scion exchanges. I've gotten Etter's Gold and Wickson's Crab which were sold by the CNCo. Kathleen and Waltana are available as well, varieties not sold by the CNCo. Greenmantle Nursery carries several that they've discovered in the Etter orchard and introduced.

Learn more about the Etter apple story here on the Greenmantle website.

What to do with your Etter's Apples

Once you've grown your Etter apples, you can find recipes for using them, published by the California Nursery Company. Robert Stoney Mayock was a local winemaker and food writer. Mayock put on large barbecues for the California Nursery to entertain guests. His daughter, Sally, was one of the Mills College girls who was hired to dress in a Dutch costume and help guests at the annual Bulb show in the 1930's.

More from the catalog

Suggested Field Trips

Want to see where Charles Shinn grew up? Shinn Historical Park & Arboretum is a 4 acre park where James and Lucy Shinn came when the area was known as Vallejo's Mills (or perhaps Centreville) in 1856, before Niles was established, before the Transcontinental Railroad. Charles Howard Shinn grew up here. The Shinn's Nurseries was one of the early nurseries in the area. They were in business in the 1870's-1880's period and introduced fruit trees, ornamental plants, and roses. The 1878-1879 catalog describes 4 pages of apples and other fruits. The park has some really old trees that need to be seen in person: huge Chilean Wine Palms, Chilean Bellota, Moreton Bay Fig, Ginkgo, and many others.