Apple - Martins Custard - Scion

An old apple Martin's Custard which was thought to be extinct. Specimen found in Cotesbach, Leicestershire. Ripens ealier than Bramley.

Hogg's Fruit Manual - "Fruit medium sized, two inches and three quarters wide and two and a half high: roundish, ribbed on the sides, and with ridges round the crown which extend into the basin of the eye. Skin greenish yellow, mottled with red on the shaded side, and considerably streaked with dark crimson and with a violet bloom on the side next the sun. Eye, small, quite closed, set in a narrow puckered basin. Stalk, very short, sometimes a mere fleshy knob, and sometimes woody with a fleshy swelling on one side. Flesh, yellowish, firm, crisp, juicy and briskly acid. An excellent culinary apple: in use from October to Christmas. This apple is much grown in the orchards conterminous with Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, and I am indebted for a knowledge of it to my good friend the Rev M J Berkley, of Sibbertoft, near Market Harborough."