December 5: Connell Red

Menomonie, WI
1957
Aka Red Fireside

Large with a deeply saturated dark red color, its flesh is fine-grained and sweet with little acid so that “pear” is often a descriptor brought to mind. It’s also quite fragrant.

One day an apple grower named Tom Connell found an atypically red apple on his Fireside tree and said – hey! That’s not a Fireside! And the Connell Red was born. Its flavor profile is nearly exactly the same as Fireside.

It is said that it’s not worth eating a Fireside or a Connell Red unless it’s big, and I’d agree with that. The flavor seems to be most fully-developed in those large apples. They’re also somewhat dry, and the larger apples seem to have more juice in them than the smaller apples.

Put a Connell Red into pie. Why not?!? Just don’t make your entire pie out of Connell’s or you’ll be disappointed by the lack of tang. On the other hand, I think this apple excels with peanut butter as a snack.

We pick our Connell Reds fairly late, this year in about mid-October.

Read an account of the new Connell Red apple variety in an issue of the Minnesota Nurseryman’s newsletter from 1958.

Growing Notes

Connell Reds have a weeping growth pattern, which makes pruning them a bit different from other trees. I’ve found Connell Red to be marginally less hardy than its fraternal twin, Fireside. They overcrop some, but not to the same degree as Haralson.