The McIntosh ( ), McIntosh Red, or colloquially the Mac, is a cultivated apple variety, designated the national apple of Canada. The fruit has red and green skin, a tart flavor, and tender white flesh, which ripens in late September. An all-purpose apple, the McIntosh may be eaten raw, cooked, or used to make apple sauce.
John McIntosh discovered the original McIntosh sapling on his Dundela farm in Upper Canada in 1811. He and his wife cultivated it, and the family started grafting the tree and selling the fruit in 1835. In 1870, it entered commercial production, and became common in Ontario, Quebec, New England, and New York after 1900. While still produced in large quantities, the fruit's popularity fell in the early 21st century in the face of competition from varieties such as the Ambrosia, Gala, and Honeycrisp.
Jef Raskin, an employee at Apple Computer, named the Macintosh computer line—later abbreviated to "Mac" in 1999—after the cultivar.
Description
The McIntosh, or McIntosh Red (nicknamed the "Mac"), is the most popular apple cultivar in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It also sells well in Eastern Europe.
A spreading tree that is moderately vigorous, the McIntosh bears annually or in alternate years. The tree is hardy to at least USDA Hardiness zone 4a, or . 50% or more of its flowers die at or below.
right|thumb|alt=Illustration of red and green apple above, and a cross section of the same below.|A McIntosh that was illustrated in 1901
The McIntosh apple is a small to medium-sized round fruit with a short stem. It has a red and green skin that is thick, tender, and easy to peel. Its white flesh is sometime tinged with green or pink and is juicy, tender, and firm, soon becoming soft. The flesh is easily bruised.
The McIntosh is a general-purpose apple; it is suitable both for eating raw and for cooking. It is used primarily for dessert, and requires less time to cook than most cultivars. It is usually blended when used for juice or cider. It could also be used to make apple sauce and apple pie. South of the border, more than two thirds of McIntosh apples were harvested in New York State.
The McIntosh is one of the most common cultivars used in apple breeding; a 1996 study found that the McIntosh was a parent in 101 of 439 cultivars selected, more than any other founding clone. It was used in over half of the Canadian cultivars selected, and was used extensively in the United States and Eastern Europe as well. But rarely was it used elsewhere. Offspring of the McIntosh include: the Macoun (with the Jersey Black), the Spartan, the Cortland (with the Ben Davis); the Empire (with the Red Delicious); the Jonamac, the Jersey Mac, the Lobo, the Melba, the Summered, the Tydeman's Red, and possibly the Paula Red.
History
thumb|McIntosh apples on a tree
Apple trees were introduced to Canada at the Habitation at Port-Royal as early as 1606 by French settlers. Following its introduction, apple cultivation spread inland.
The McIntosh's discoverer, John McIntosh (1777 – ), left his native Mohawk Valley home in New York State in 1796 to follow his love, Dolly Irwin, who had been taken to Upper Canada by her Loyalist parents. She had died by the time he found her, but he settled as a farmer in Upper Canada. He married Hannah Doran in 1801, and they farmed along the Saint Lawrence River until 1811, when McIntosh exchanged the land he had with his brother-in-law Edward Doran for a plot in Dundela.
While clearing the overgrown plot, McIntosh discovered some apple seedlings on his farm. Since the crabapple was the only native apple in North America before European settlement, it must have had European origins. The Snow Apple (or Fameuse) had been popular in Lower Canada before that time; the seedlings may have sprouted from discarded fruit. Fall St Lawrence and Alexander have also been proposed, but the parentage remains unknown. The McIntosh made up 40% of the Canadian apple market by the 1960s; and at least thirty varieties of McIntosh hybrid were known by 1970. However, its market share declined to 28% in 2014 Its popularity has also waned in the face of competition from imports; in the first decade of the 21st century, the Gala (imported from Chile or the United States) accounted for 33% of the apple market in Ontario to the McIntosh's 12%, Production remained important to Ontario, however, as of McIntosh apples were produced in 2010. In Quebec, about two fifths of all apples harvested were McIntosh, as of 2020. Production remained relatively high in part because many orchardists were at the end of their careers with no successors, and as such were not keen to replace the McIntosh with newer varieties. which do not require royalties for cultivation and sales, unlike the newer managed varieties.
center|frame|Despite the arrival of new competitors, the McIntosh remains one of the most produced apple varieties in Canada during the 2020s.
In the United States, the McIntosh was one of the most produced apples during the twentieth century, behind only the Red Delicious and the Golden Delicious. In the Northeastern United States, the McIntosh replaced many Baldwin trees that were killed in a severe winter in 1933–34. The McIntosh become the second most popular variety in the 1970s, after the Red Delicious. By the 2020s, however, total production of the McIntosh, measured in bushels, has fallen behind that of a new variety, the Cosmic Crisp. Even in New York, which has traditionally favoured the McIntosh, production has fallen from about a quarter of the state's total volume in the 1980s to about 14 percent in the 2020s.
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! Name!! Parentage !! Selected year !! Introduced year
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| Bancroft || McIntosh x Forest || 1930
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| Edgar || McIntosh x Forest || 1929 ||
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| Barry || McIntosh x Cox´s Orange Pippin || || 1957 ||
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| Toshfor || McIntosh x Forest || || 1926
|-
| Maud || McIntosh x Longfield || || 1921
|-
| Sharon || McIntosh x Longfield || 1920 || 1922
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| Blair|| McIntosh x Fameuse || 1944 || 1973
|-
| Jubilee || McIntosh x Grimes Golden || 1936|| 1939
|-
| Macoun || McIntosh x Jersey Black ||1918 ||1923
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| Toshlaw || McIntosh x Lawver || || 1925
|-
| Fantazja || McIntosh x Linda || 1954 || 1960
|-
| South Dakota Macata ||McIntosh x Malus Baccata || || 1938
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| Toshkee || McIntosh x Milwaukee || || 1923
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| Spartan || McIntosh x Newtown || 1936 ||
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| Maga || McIntosh x Virginia Crab || 1919 || 1933
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|Michaelmas Red ||McIntosh x Worcester Pearmain || ||1945
|-
|Tydemans Early Worcester ||McIntosh x Worcester Pearmain || ||1945
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| Newtosh || McIntosh x Yellow Newtown || 1922 || 1923
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| Killand|| McIntosh x Dolgo || 1951|| 1957
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| Northland || McIntosh x Dolgo || 1938 || 1957
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| Stonetosh || Stone x McIntosh || || 1922
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| Rosilda || Prince x McIntosh || 1916 || 1921
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| Cortland || Ben Davis x McIntosh || || 1915
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| Toshprince || Prince x McIntosh || || 1923
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|McPrince ||Prince x McIntosh || ||1922
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|Niagara ||Carlton x McIntosh ||1950 || 1962
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| George || McIntosh O.P. || || 1948
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| Glendale || McIntosh O.P. || 1948 || 1956
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| Glenelm || McIntosh O.P. || 1945 || 1952
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| Glenmary || McIntosh O.P. || 1940 || 1948
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| Glenwale || McIntosh O.P. || 1940 || 1958
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| Kress McIntosh || McIntosh O.P. || 1920 || 1934
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|Lobo ||McIntosh O.P. ||1906 ||1930
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| Melba || McIntosh O.P. || 1909 || 1924
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|Patricia ||McIntosh O.P. ||1920 ||
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| Reta || McIntosh O.P. || || 1953
|}
O.P. = Open Pollinated
Cultural significance
thumb|upright|left|alt=A beige, boxy computer with a small black and white screen showing a window and desktop with icons.|[[Apple Inc.'s Macintosh line of personal computers was named after the fruit.]]
The McIntosh has been designated the national apple of Canada. A popular subscription funded a plaque placed from the original McIntosh tree in 1912. The Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board replaced the plaque with a more descriptive one in 1962, and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada put up another in a park nearby in 2001, by a painted mural commemorating the fruit.
Apple Inc. employee Jef Raskin named the Macintosh line of personal computers after the McIntosh.