Campfield apples

[Jeff Coffey]

Can anyone tell me about their experience with Campfield apples? On paper it seems like an ideal cider apple. Cummins shows that it’s resistant to most of the orchard nasties. I have constant trouble with fireblight and scab, so on paper, the Campfield looks attractive.

-Jeff

[Patrick McCauley]

Hey Jeff. I live in SE Michigan, and though my trees are young, and have only produced a few fruits so far, they seem very happy and hardy. Fruit is very dense and have little insect or disease damage. I've read that the fruits are a mild bittersweet, though when I taste them, they are more like a sweet. They may impart a small amount of tannin. I don't get the bitterness when eating them, but we'll see what happens when I have enough to press. They taste like a sweet to me. They were historically mixed with Harrison, which makes sense since they are later in the season, and would certainly blend down the high acidity of Harrison. Many sources also mention that these two apples were also blended with Graniwinkle, but this makes no sense to me, especially in a historical context. Graniwinkle is so early for me(late August), and the sharp juice doesn't seem useful for cider at all. I wonder if my Graniwinkles aren't true to type, though I've picked them at another orchard, and it's the same thing, so who knows?! Good luck!

Pat McCauley 

On Thu, Oct 30, 2025, 9:33 AM Jeff Coffey <jjco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can anyone tell me about their experience with Campfield apples?  On paper it seems like an ideal cider apple. Cummins shows that it’s resistant to most of the orchard nasties.  I have constant trouble with fireblight and scab, so on paper, the Campfield looks attractive. 

-Jeff

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[Richard Hastings]

Jeff:

Several years ago, one of our growers obtained Campfield budwood from WSU’s Mount Vernon WA extension orchard. 

Our cider trials thus far have been disappointing on several fronts:

• The apple (and resulting cider) doesn’t seem to have much in the way of tannins, unlike what we’d been led to believe about the apple and its traditional use as a bittersweet. 
• The apples seemed exceptionally dry, and in addition to the low juice yield, proved difficult for our hammer mill and belt press to process. 
• At first, the extracted juice was nearly chocolate brown - one of the darkest, most viscous juices we’ve seen. But after a few days while we awaited the end of lag phase, the juice dropped a significant amount of particulates, leaving roughly 1/4 of the total volume as lees. The cider, once fermented and aged, went from chocolate brown (juice) to a light “straw” coloration. 

The cider, both as a SV and as blended with Harrison, is tasty enough - lending creamy, ripe orange peel and honeydew melon notes - but the low yield, pressing issues and lack of tannins have us giving serious consideration to re-working these trees. 

FWIW, we corresponded with the folks at Ironbound - who use Campfield (aka Canfield), Harrison and Graniwinkle apples regularly, and came away feeling that our experiences weren't unusual. 

Your mileage may vary. 

Rick Hastings 

On Oct 30, 2025, at 6:33 AM, Jeff Coffey <jjco...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can anyone tell me about their experience with Campfield apples?  On paper it seems like an ideal cider apple. Cummins shows that it’s resistant to most of the orchard nasties.  I have constant trouble with fireblight and scab, so on paper, the Campfield looks attractive.  

-Jeff