Baldwin Apple Tree

The Baldwin apple tree was planted at Ruthmere Museum in 2008. The Baldwin tree is an apple variety discovered as a chance seedling in Massachusetts in 1740 and named after Colonel Loanne Baldwin, a high sheriff of the courts of Concord and Cambridge. In 1810, cuttings from the original tree were grafted and grown in Maine. By 1850, Baldwin was the standard all-purpose home and commercial variety of apple. The Baldwin apple is an excellent eating apple, also great for pie making and baking. It remained dominant in Maine until the terrible winter of 1934 when tens of thousands of trees perished and McIntosh apples became king.