See also “NC Tomato Man”: https://www.craiglehoullier.com/
Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
21–30 of 88 posts
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#22Surely there oughta be better fruits to save. As a generic "fruit hunter" I hate all apples and oranges now, it's like there's no other fruit in the world. Go spread the seed of the ice cream bean fruit and tabo fruit instead.
This comment is as silly as saying you shouldn't grow walnuts because there is watermelon. The fruits you mentioned are not even comparable to apples they are tropical fruits and wouldn't even grow in most parts of the United States. Apples from the grocery store are generally lack-luster compared to varieties that have been grown for flavor instead of shelf life.
Apples have many more purposes than eating out of hand, this is why they are the world's most popular fruit. There are cider apples, pie apples and sauce apples. You can also make pectin, jam and apple butter. What else is done with ice cream bean besides just eating it?
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#23Although I appreciate the work folks like Tom Brown do, the notion that he has actually rescued 1000 varieties is a bit of a stretch. An apple variety is only really rescued when it has found a home in commerce and some significant consumer base wants it. Otherwise it's just on life support in a museum, and maybe in a few home orchardists' little collections of trees - it's perpetuation still hanging by a thread. In…
Many fruit collectors like Tom also make their collection available to other collectors.
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#24Kind of related: in former Eastern Germany they bred all kinds of new Pear varieties.
Pears are a little more finicky than apples and the fruit bruise more easily. Furthermore a lot of the varieties will go bad really quickly, so you basically have to eat them from the tree.
Because of those reasons there are just one or two varieties available in stores and there is not a lot of commercial interest in Pears. With the end of the GDR, also came the end of Pear breeding and there are barely any new breeds in the last 30 years.
To end on an Apple related note: my favorite GDR breed is the „Schweizer Orange“, „Swiss Orange“. Which is so ironic because there was no access to Switzerland nor good Oranges.
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#25Ironically, you will never find the best-tasting apples in your local grocery store. The tastiest apples are often smaller, brown or dark skin, not the big red 'juicy' apples the uninformed consumer thinks are the best. Viz. the Red "Delicious", whose flavor was bred out in favor of color and appearance. It is now insipid and flavorless. In the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, the humble-looking Cox Orange is sweet a…
> Ironically, you will never find the best-tasting apples in your local grocery store. I'm not sure it's "ironic". I think it is a case of "you get what you optimize for". Grocery stores optimize for: * cost * transportability * shelf life * appearance And all for good reason! That's what makes money. Doesn't matter if you have the best tasting apple in the world if shipping it on a truck destroys 90% of them and you…
To be fair, to someone who was not born in the US and grew up eating apples from u-pick orchards, grocery store apples in CA have an awful apparence and shelf life and way too sugary taste, but this is likely a case of people buying what they are used to :)
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#26Kind of related: in former Eastern Germany they bred all kinds of new Pear varieties. Pears are a little more finicky than apples and the fruit bruise more easily. Furthermore a lot of the varieties will go bad really quickly, so you basically have to eat them from the tree. Because of those reasons there are just one or two varieties available in stores and there is not a lot of commercial interest in Pears. With th…
Serendipitous seeing this mentioned here after my father very recently mentioned how much he missed the variety of pears that he could get when he went on komandirovkas to the GDR.
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#27I have some trees from this place, as well as trees from 'Century Farms' - another meticulously kept apple and pear orchard archive.
Their tasting and usage notes on heirloom apples is worth a read. Learning how to take care of these trees has been a rewarding journey so far, their status can be so tenuous as you learn about the impacts of cedar tree rust, fire blight, and dozens of bacteria out to quickly ruin the trees!
https://www.centuryfarmorchards.com/descripts/osadescripts.h...
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#28Surely there oughta be better fruits to save. As a generic "fruit hunter" I hate all apples and oranges now, it's like there's no other fruit in the world. Go spread the seed of the ice cream bean fruit and tabo fruit instead.
This comment is as silly as saying you shouldn't grow walnuts because there is watermelon. The fruits you mentioned are not even comparable to apples they are tropical fruits and wouldn't even grow in most parts of the United States. Apples from the grocery store are generally lack-luster compared to varieties that have been grown for flavor instead of shelf life. Apples have many more purposes than eating out of han…
Yup, for the first years of so I lived in the US, I never understood why American (hard) cider tastes so different from French cider, even when you get fancy no-sugar added cider.
The answer was that cider is mostly made from table apples instead of cider apples, and they taste completely different!
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#29Although I appreciate the work folks like Tom Brown do, the notion that he has actually rescued 1000 varieties is a bit of a stretch. An apple variety is only really rescued when it has found a home in commerce and some significant consumer base wants it. Otherwise it's just on life support in a museum, and maybe in a few home orchardists' little collections of trees - it's perpetuation still hanging by a thread. In…
> Although I appreciate the work folks like Tom Brown do, the notion that he has actually rescued 1000 varieties is a bit of a stretch. An apple variety is only really rescued when it has found a home in commerce and some significant consumer base wants it.
This was a great article about someone putting in a lot of work to collect and sustain old apple varieties. I didn’t expect to come into the comments and find people gatekeeping the concept of rescuing old apple varieties, especially not on the basis of a lack of consumer demand. He has made these available to others who want them, per the article.
Come on, this guy rescued varieties from extinction. He’s not on a mission to restore their popularity among the general public. Heirloom varieties are fun and rare and unique. Let’s enjoy and appreciate this for what it is.
Re: Appalachian Apple hunter who rescued 1k ‘lost’ varieties (2021)
#30Although I appreciate the work folks like Tom Brown do, the notion that he has actually rescued 1000 varieties is a bit of a stretch. An apple variety is only really rescued when it has found a home in commerce and some significant consumer base wants it. Otherwise it's just on life support in a museum, and maybe in a few home orchardists' little collections of trees - it's perpetuation still hanging by a thread. In…
> Although I appreciate the work folks like Tom Brown do, the notion that he has actually rescued 1000 varieties is a bit of a stretch. An apple variety is only really rescued when it has found a home in commerce and some significant consumer base wants it. This was a great article about someone putting in a lot of work to collect and sustain old apple varieties. I didn’t expect to come into the comments and find peo…
I think their point is that apple seeds don’t grow true to their parent, so every single sprout from a seed is essentially a new variety, and they are continually created and lost -- the genetic line is not extinct, these are all the same plant. Capturing a large collection of palatable apples is fun, but framing this as some sort of historical preservation is kind of tenuous.