The origins of the Rambo
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
are unknown.
It may date back to the
American colony
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
of
New Sweden
New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden form ...
, when in 1637
Peter Gunnarsson Rambo
Peter Gunnarsson Rambo (10 June 1611, Hisingen, Gothenburg, Sweden – 21 January 1698, Wicaco, Pennsylvania, United States) was a Swedish immigrant to New Sweden (now part of Philadelphia) known as a farmer and a justice of the Governor's Counc ...
, a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
immigrant, arrived on the ''
Kalmar Nyckel
''Kalmar Nyckel'' (''Key of Kalmar'') was a Swedish ship built by the Dutch famed for carrying Swedish settlers to North America in 1638, to establish the colony of New Sweden. The name Kalmar Nyckel comes from the Swedish city of Kalmar and nyc ...
''. Swedish natural historian
Pehr Kalm
Pehr Kalm (6 March 1716 – 16 November 1779), also known as Peter Kalm, was a Swedish explorer, botanist, naturalist, and agricultural economist. He was one of the most important apostles of Carl Linnaeus.
In 1747, he was commissioned by the ...
, 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.″ 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. 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
Ramberget (; en, "Raven Hill") is a mountain on Hisingen island in Gothenburg, Sweden. The surrounding area and park is called Keillers Park. Ramberget is a popular tourist attraction and a place for outdoor recreation for Gothenburg residents, wi ...
(or "Raven Mountain") on the island of
Hisingen, which today is part of
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
, 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."
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
Henderson William Luelling (April 23, 1809 – December 28, 1878) was an American horticulturist, Quaker, abolitionist and early Oakland, California settler. He introduced varietal fruits to the Pacific coast, first to Oregon and later to Californ ...
of
Salem, Iowa
Salem is a city in Henry County, Iowa, United States. The population was 394 at the time of the 2020 census.
History
Salem was settled originally by Quakers with the intent that it be a community of Friends. In 1835 Aaron Street, while wending ...
brought with his family along the Oregon Trail to establish the first orchard in the Pacific Northwest.
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
The 'Summer Rambo' apple is French in origin. In France, it is known as 'Rambour d'été'. Originally known in North America as 'Summer Rambour,' the name evolved to 'Summer Rambo' sometime before the 1850s. Like the Rambo
Rambo is a surname wi ...
(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.
In popular culture
According to author
David Morrell
David Morrell (born April 24, 1943) is a Canadian-American novelist whose debut 1972 novel ''First Blood'', later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, went on to spawn the successful ''Rambo'' franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He h ...
, the apple provided the name for the hero of his novel, ''
First Blood'', which gave rise to the
Rambo
Rambo is a surname with Norwegian (Vestfold) and Swedish origins. It possibly originated with '' ramn'' + '' bo'', meaning "raven's nest". It has variants in French (''Rambeau'', ''Rambaut'', and ''Rimbaud'') and German (''Rambow''). It is now best ...
film franchise. The novelist's wife brought home a supply of the fruit as he was trying to come up with a suitable name for the protagonist.
It is uncertain whether David Morrell's wife brought home Rambos or Summer Rambos. Summer Rambos would have been much more common, but since his wife bought the apples at a roadside stand, either is possible (Morrell had previously been influenced by the French poet and soldier Arthur Rimbaud, the last name often pronounced Rambo, and then the Rambo apples... seeing the actual spelling of the word Rambo... sealed the name).
James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...
, the Hoosier Poet, sentimentalized the Rambo in his poem, ''The Rambo-Tree'' which appeared in his 1902 collection ''The Book of Joyous Children.''
The poem includes the repeating chorus:
For just two truant lads like we,
When Autumn shakes the rambo-tree
There's enough for you and enough for me
It's a long, sweet way across the orchard.
A similar sentiment was expressed by "Uncle Silas" in his column for the September 1907 issue of ''The American Thresherman'': "What has become of the good old apples we used to eat in the long ago down on the farm? The Rambo, the best apple that ever grew in an orchard, is fruit vouchsafed only in memory.
n Missouri,no apple was ever enjoyed like the Rambo.... A boy would go farther to swipe Rambo apples, and subject his pantaloons to greater exposure from ugly dogs than he would for any other kind, and boys know on which tree the best apples grow. A drink of cider without any fixin', made of Rambo apples, will go farther down and awake the molecules of mankind in a greater degree than any other kind of cider. The world is growing wiser, but not in raising Rambo apples."
The claim that the Rambo was the favorite apple of
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman (September 26, 1774March 18, 1845), better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern coun ...
is false. Johnny Appleseed did not grow or sell any grafted varieties, and for the Rambo or any other variety to be perpetuated, it must be grafted. As
Michael Pollan
Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...
indicates in his chapter on the apple in
Botany of Desire
''The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World '' is a 2001 nonfiction book by journalist Michael Pollan. Pollan presents case studies mirroring four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed, ...
, John Chapman (1774–1845), for religious reasons related to the doctrines of
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had ...
, believed grafting was an unnatural practice. Chapman was given the nickname "Appleseed" pejoratively for his highly unusual practice of planting trees from seed. Apples grown from seed are most often small and poorly flavored. Back when the frontier only extended as far west as the state of Indiana, that worked fine for Johnny Appleseed, since the apples from his trees were used principally for making hard cider. Also the pioneers didn't have any other choice in suppliers. The apple tree in Nova, Ohio, that is more than 175 years old, can either be the last surviving apple tree that Johnny Appleseed planted or it can be a Rambo tree. It cannot be both, despite any marketing claims.
References
Bibliography
* Coxe, William. ''A view of the cultivation of fruit trees, and the management of orchards and cider.'', 253pp, M. Carey and Son, 1817.
* Kalm, Pehr, 1716-1779. ''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.'', 797pp, Dover, 1966. NOTE: "The hitherto untranslated portion has been done into English by Miss Edith M. L. Carlborg and the present editor."
{{Apples, state=collapsed
Apple cultivars