Jonathan is a medium-sized sweet[1]apple, with a touch of acid[2] and a tough but smooth skin, good for eating fresh and for cooking. Parentage = Esopus Spitzenburg x ?[3][2]
There are two alternative theories about the origin of the Jonathan apple.
The first theory; it was grown by Rachel Negus Higley, who gathered seeds from the local cider mill in Connecticut. This was before the family made their journey to the wilds of Ohio in 1796, where she planted them.[6] She continued to carefully cultivate her orchard to maturity and named the resulting variety after a young local boy, Jonathan Lash, who frequented her orchard.[citation needed]
The other, more accepted, theory is that it originated from an Esopus Spitzenburg seedling in 1826, on the farm of Philip Rick(s) in Woodstock, Ulster County, New York. Although it may have originally been called the "Ricks" apple, it was soon renamed by Judge Jesse Buel, President of Albany Horticultural Society, after Jonathan Zander, who discovered the apple and brought it to Buel's attention.[7][2]
^ ab"Jonathan", National Fruit Collection UK, archived from the original on 20 November 2015, retrieved 7 November 2015
^ abcBeach, S.A.; Booth, N.O.; Taylor, O.M. (1905). "Jonathan". The apples of New York. Vol. 1. Albany: J. B. Lyon. pp. 172–174 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
