Rambo apple

{{Short description|Apple cultivar}}

{{Distinguish|Summer Rambo}}

{{Infobox cultivar

| name = Apple 'Rambo'

| image = Pomological Watercolor POM00002880.jpg

| genus = Malus

| species = Malus domestica

| hybrid =

| cultivar = 'Rambo'

| origin = Known in North America before 1817

}}

The origins of the Rambo apple cultivar are unknown.{{citation |author1=Beach, S.A. |author2=Booth, N.O. |author3=Taylor, O.M. |year=1905 |title=The apples of New York |publisher=J. B. Lyon |location=Albany |chapter-url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56420#page/461/mode/1up |chapter=Rambo |pages=273–275 |volume=1}} It may date back to the American colony of New Sweden, when in 1637 Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, a Swedish immigrant, arrived on the Kalmar Nyckel. Swedish natural historian Pehr Kalm, who wrote Travels in North America, 1747–51, took notes of his interview with Mr. Peter Rambo, grandson of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, recording that the "original Peter Rambo had brought apple seeds and several other tree and garden seeds with him in a box."{{cite book |last=Kalm |first=Peter |title=Peter Kalm's travels in North America; the America of 1750; the English version of 1770, rev. from the original Swedish and edited by Adolph B. Benson, with a translation of new material from Kalm's diary notes |publisher=Dover |date=1966 |orig-year=c. 1937 |chapter=Addenda to the Diary }} The first Rambo apple tree was very likely grown from one of these seeds. There is no certainty, however, since the earliest documented mention of the apple variety's origin occurs in William Coxe's A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider, published in 1817.{{cite web |last1=Coxe |first1=William |title=A view of the cultivation of fruit trees, and the management of orchards and cider; with accurate descriptions of the most estimable varieties of native and foreign apples, pears, peaches, plums, and cherries, cultivated in the middle states of America: illustrated by cuts of two hundred kinds of fruits of the natural size .. |url=https://archive.org/details/aviewcultivatio00coxegoog |publisher=Philadelphia: Published by M. Carey and son |date=1817}} Coxe wrote only that the Rambo was much cultivated in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey and took "its name from the families by whom it was introduced into notice."

The name Rambo was most likely derived from Peter Gunnarsson's Swedish home on Ramberget (or "Raven Mountain") on the island of Hisingen, which today is part of Gothenburg, but in Gunnarsson's time was mostly farmland. One translation of "bo" from Swedish to English is "resident." The Rambo is very similar in traits, such as size, shape, and coloring, to several French apples called Rambour. There is no known explanation for the similarity of the names.

The Rambo has a greenish yellow skin, mottled and striped with a dull red and overspread with a grayish bloom. Rambo apples ripen in early to late fall, depending on the region of the country. The fruit is medium-sized on average, but sometimes large. The apple has a distinctive flavor and aroma. Very versatile, the Rambo has been rated very good to excellent for fresh eating, cooking and baking, jelly, and drying. Little known today, the Rambo was once widely grown, but in a limited geographical range from the mid-Atlantic states west into the middle Prairie states. In Varieties of Apples in Ohio (1915), the "little old-fashioned Rambo" was said to have been found "in almost every old orchard in Ohio."{{cite book |last1=Green |first1=W. J. |last2=Thayer |first2=Paul |last3=Keil |first3=J. B. |title=Varieties of apples in Ohio |series=Bulletin / Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station; no. 290 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011465801 |publisher=Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station |date=1915}}

It was also found in Oregon and Northern California. In 1847, the Rambo was included among the 18 varieties of apple trees that Henderson Luelling of Salem, Iowa brought with his family along the Oregon Trail to establish the first orchard in the Pacific Northwest.History of Fruit Growing in the Pacific Northwest, Henderson Luelling and Seth Lewelling | url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/cool/luelling.html

The Rambo belongs to the era when people bought apples from local suppliers and grew apple trees in their backyard. Even a hundred years ago, the Rambo was not widely grown commercially. There were several reasons that it was considered to be unmarketable. It did not have bright coloring. Its productivity was inconsistent. It did not have a long storage life. It was too tender for shipping long distances.

So as not to confuse the Rambo apple with the unrelated Summer Rambo (also known as the Rambour Franc), the Rambo has also been called the Winter Rambo. Other names given to the Rambo over the years include Romanite, Bread and Cheese (perhaps after Bread and Cheese Island in Delaware), Seek-No-Further, Delaware, and Striped Rambo.