Early Fall. Seedling of Duchess or New Brunswicker. Dudley Farm, Castle Hill, ME (Aroostook County), about 1877. Also called Dudley, North Star and Dudley's Winter. Originated by John Wesley Dudley, owner of one of the finest orchards in Aroostook County and son of one of the area's first settlers. His father, Micajah Dudley, came to Ashland in Aroostook County from China, ME in 1838, and later moved to Castle Hill with his four sons. 

By 1895 John Wesley had 275 full grown trees in his orchard, including 200 Dudley Winter apples. But at that time, his brothers were turning their attention to potatoes and John decided to move to Washington State, near Yakima. His orchard was cut down and has been put into potatoes ever since. 

Dudley Winter was the most widely planted new variety at the turn of the last century in the North. Probably the most well-known Maine apple variety outside the state, it spread as far as Wisconsin and Canada, where it is still grown commercially. The apple was particularly important 100 years ago because "keeping" apples were virtually unknown that far north. The keepers almost always require a fairly long season to ripen, and by late fall in Aroostook County, apples are frozen on the tree.

The medium-to-large roundish fruit is overlaid with rosy red dots, stripes and wash, with firm but tender, aromatic mild subacid very juicy flesh. Quite good for fresh eating and cooking from late September well into winter. Tree begins bearing young, with heavy annual crops.Because the apple resembles Duchess, it's not an easy variety to locate. One of the highlights of our fruit exploring adventures in 2000 was tracking down an ancient orchard near New Sweden of Dudley Winter trees. It was the first time we'd positively identified them in Aroostook County and we'll be grafting future nursery stock exclusively from those trees.