September/October 2002 Excerpt

Excerpt from A Taste of the Past: Heirloom Apples

Heirloom apples are delicious alternatives to modern varieties that have been bred for their  perfect appearance and durability, often at the expense of flavor.

by Rita Pelczar

As an undergraduate studying horticulture, I was required to take two semesters of tree fruit production. In the fall of my junior year, I spent Monday afternoons identifying—by taste, among other characteristics—60 or so varieties of apples. Never was studying so appealing! The flavors, textures, and aromas were complex, varied, and oh so delicious.

By comparison, most of the apples that fill today’s grocery shelves are bland, and there is little variation in flavor from one to another. Sure, they are a sight to behold: big, shiny, unblemished, and abundant. But why are only a handful of the varieties I tasted back in school available at the grocery store? And why don’t they taste like the apples of my memory?

THE NEEDS OF THE MANY…

The answer is that flavor and variety have been subsumed by the needs of mass production and year-round sale. “Most modern-day producers are not growing apples to meet local demand, but are raising apples to be shipped across the country and worldwide,” explains Ron Joyner, who owns Big Horse Creek Farm, an heirloom fruit nursery in Ashe County, North Carolina. Modern apples have been bred and selected for a flawless appearance, ability to withstand long-range shipping, prolific production, and an extended shelf life. “Breeders produce fruit capable of meeting these criteria,” says Joyner, “but there is something lost by sacrificing flavor and freshness for an attractive apple that can be sold in December.”

Many antique varieties of apples, however, are simply not suited to mass production and long-range distribution. Some are easily bruised or don’t hold up well after they are picked. Others are simply ugly by today’s standards. But oh, the flavor!

Apples grown in your backyard needn’t possess the same qualities as commercial varieties. You can let them ripen on the tree. Shipping, handling, and storage concerns are moot when you can eat the fruit the day it’s picked.
Heirloom varieties of apples afford home gardeners an opportunity to savor the diverse flavors of the past. And if you are interested in growing apples for specific purposes—such as baking, cooking, drying, or drinking—there are varieties with the perfect blend of qualities to accommodate.

THE APPLESEED CONNECTION

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, when Johnny Appleseed (see box, page 35) was collecting seeds from cider makers to plant his orchards for settlers on the American frontier, it was understood that each seed-grown tree in an orchard would have different characteristics. Each tree had to be grown for several years until fruit was produced before its merits could be determined. It’s no wonder that pioneers typically cultivated large numbers of fruit trees—some eventually fed the family, others the hogs.

Because apples are insect pollinated and often require pollen from a different variety for fertilization to be accomplished, each apple seed represents a unique set of genes. Specific varieties must be vegetatively propagated—typically by grafting a cutting (scion) of the desired tree onto a new rootstock—to preserve their particular traits.

Trees that displayed particularly favorable qualities were named, frequently after the grower or the region. But few apple trees survive more than 50 years, and if a tree with superior fruit was not propagated vegetatively before it died, that unique set of characteristics was lost.

As settlers pushed farther west and people began to take root and create stable communities, regionally successful apple varieties began to be selected, named, and perpetuated. The mid- to late 1800s were the golden age of apple diversity, with apple growers from regional hotbeds of tree fruit production such as the Pacific Northwest, New York State, and Virginia, championing their favorites in publications such as The Orchardist’s Companion, published in Philadelphia.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE APPLES GONE?

A hundred years ago, there were some 7,000 to 8,000 named apple varieties available in the United States; today the number is closer to 200. Many have been lost forever; others still exist but are growing old and are in danger of joining the list of extinct varieties.

Fortunately, there are a few dedicated researchers who seek and collect antique varieties of apples from old homesteads and historic sites, rescuing and propagating them so that future generations can sample the same diversity enjoyed by our forebears. …

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Both photos are by Skip Johns. The watercolor illustration shows ‘Esopus Spitzenberg’ and the photo of the apple still on the tree is of ‘Hewes Crab’.