Posted on 04/15/2020 11:59:45 AM PDT by Artemis Webb
PORTLAND, Ore. — A team of retirees who scour the remote ravines and windswept plains of the Pacific Northwest for long-forgotten pioneer orchards has rediscovered 10 apple varieties that were believed to be extinct — the largest number ever unearthed in a single season by the nonprofit Lost Apple Project.
The Vietnam veteran and former FBI agent who make up the nonprofit recently learned of their tally from last fall’s apple sleuthing from expert botanists at the Temperate Orchard Conservancy in Oregon, where all the apples are sent for study and identification. The apples positively identified as previously “lost” were among hundreds of fruits collected in October and November from 140-year-old orchards tucked into small canyons or hidden in forests that have since grown up around them in rural Idaho and Washington state.
(snip)
Each fall, Brandt and Benscoter spend countless hours and log hundreds of miles searching for ancient — and often dying — apple trees across the Pacific Northwest by truck, all-terrain vehicle and on foot. They collect hundreds of apples from long-abandoned orchards that they find using old maps, county fair records, newspaper clippings and nursery sales ledgers that can tell them which homesteader bought what apple tree and when the purchase happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Descendants of Johnny Appleseed?
I don’t know why, but this sounds like a wonderful way to spend your time. What a great “hobby!”
The productive way these seniors are spending their retirement is like a combination of hobbies - hiking, treasure-hunting, and preservation. I think there’s a movie or TV series in there, something like “The Dectorists”. It will make me smile for days. Thanks!!
Maybe it is because our stores buy locally (next year from us!) but we always have really good apples even at the Megalo-Mart. But else where the bagged apples are the best. The big polished "buy one at a time" apples really are not that good. They are what our neighbor who raises cider apples calls "Water Bombs".
I was going to post the same thing. Great for dutch pancakes too.
They are wonderful - there was a variety here in WI on my sister’s farm that was pink on the inside; it was 2.5 feet in dia and hollow - fell over in a high windstorm before we could get cuttings.
Then there were several varieties back were I used to live in WA across a creek past a dense forest including some plum and cherry trees from a long gone homestead.
How many Bigfoots did they see?
Johnny Appleseed got around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed
Growing u p deep in rural Ohio, my sister and I were always exploring. On one of our expeditions we came across an apple tree, picked a lot of the apples, and they made wonderful pies. They were unlike any apples we had ever seen. They were a dull, muted gold color, a lot like a Bosc pear. Always wondered what they were, after I was able to do a little internet searching, I thought it might be a Rustic. But still don’t know for sure. But what a wonderful discovery for two little girls who just had to go roaming in the woods.
NY is known for its apples and we grow all kinds of varieties here and people in these parts are quite the connesuriers of apples.
My house in NH was built on an old orchard. Across the stone wall, I would go into the overgrown orchard and grab the few non-wormy apples. They were great.
Sounds like you’re an apple grower...Maybe you know what’s happened to Jonathan apples? My late wife made incredible apple pies with Jonathans, but lately they’re about impossible to come by...One story I was told is the Jonathan orchards have (mostly) been torn out and replaced with the new patent apple varieties like Honey Crisp...More profitable...
We still have them around here (Michigan) although not in our orchard currently. They can get fire blight and scab where the Honeycrisp trees are more resilient so that may be a factor.
Love Jonathans
When I was a kid (the war years)we lived in Carrizozo, New Mexico. I remember my Dad taking us kids to pick apples.
take some cuttings and graft them onto a newer healthy variety
“NY is known for its apples and we grow all kinds of varieties here ...”
Thanks for posting that. I spent most of my life in Wayne County. We make a special trip back there each fall just to buy fresh ripe apples.
I also spent some time in the Apple Country of Washington. The folks saying apples look good but have no flavor are obviously talking about Washington Red Delicious. Yuck.
The best apples in the world come from orchards within 10 miles of the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Lots of flavor, many varieties from which to choose.
Many people are surprised to learn that NY State is the second largest producer of apples.
A few years back my wife and I were hoping to buy a place that was one of the first homesteads in our area, built about 1870. It still had the bulk of its small orchard, which produced, IIRC, late June to about October (we’re in mid-North Ontario, and it was snowing about ten minutes ago, so we don’t get apples as early as some places).
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