An Antique Apple Harvest© Marie Iannotti
Sep 19, 2000
An Antique Apple Harvest
It's Fall and no other crop is so eagerly anticipated in my part of
New York State as apples. What fruit or vegetable has more heritage
than the apple? Adam and Eve made it infamous. Sir Isaac Newton
developed his theories on gravity because of an apple. William Tell
has been immortalized for shooting one. And John Chapman was dubbed
"Johnny Appleseed" for planting trees in the early States.
Anthropologists tell us there were apples being eaten as far back as
the Stone Age. Certainly the ancient Greeks and Romans enjoyed apples,
if their mythology is to be believed. But as American as apple pie
might be, the apple as we know it is not native to the United States.
Only the inedible crab apple was here to greet the first Pilgrims.
Like so many other crops, seeds and cuttings had to be brought over from
England and eventually from other European counties, to be planted and
established in the colonies. The people importing stock would pick
their favorites in taste and resiliency, so apple trees in the U.S. underwent
a pre-selection process before they were ever established. As settlers
expanded across the country, apple trees could be found on almost every
farm. While some of those early varieties have been supplanted by
superior modern types, some are still planted and enjoyed today.
Apple trees don't live forever. So if we still have these varieties
in cultivation, someone had to have considered them worthy enough to plant.
Have you ever tried a Baldwin, Golden Russet, Jonathan or a Lady Apple?
For the most part, commercial apple growing focuses on the newer, more
disease resistant cultivars like Empire, Liberty and Fuji. To be
sure, these varieties can be delicious, especially fresh picked.
But as I've said before, commercial growers often have needs that out weigh
taste. Just because some of the older varieties of apples don't lend
themselves to mass production, that doesn't mean that aren't viable crops
and worth seeking out for a taste treat in the Fall. Whether you
wish to grow your own heirloom apples or you just want a source to purchase
them, antique apples, as the older varieties are known today, are still
very much on the market. You just need to know what to look
for. According to A
Brief Apple History by The Big Apple, a family farm and fruit
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