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Thanks - coincidentally, I was planning to try to get in touch with the patent holder to see if I could get a little scion wood to make a tree.

Ginda
:)

On Nov 25, 2003, at 6:08 PM, Dylan Ford wrote:

> Gould Hill Orchards
> Erick Leadbeater 
> 656 Gould Hill Rd. 
> Contoocook 03229 
> 9:30am-5 p.m., daily 
> 877-746-3811
> E-mail:Gouldhill@aol.com
> Web:www.gouldhill.com
> September 10, 1995, Sunday, City Edition 
> SECTION: NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY; Pg. 6 
> HEADLINE: In apple orchards, natural wins out over flawless;
> NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY / HEALTH & SCIENCE 
> BYLINE: By Ralph Jimenez, Globe Staff 
> DATELINE:CONTOOCOOK , New Hampshire
> BODY: 
> A good apple should not become moldy or mushy while waiting to be eaten - at least by humans. From the apple tree's point of view, producing apples that stayed crisp, fresh and unblemished appearance would be counterproductive, said Eric Leadbeater, owner ofGould Hill Apple Orchards. "Apples are supposed to get soft and rot. That's the idea," said Leadbetter, who recently patented the Hampshire apple, a new strain that arose on its own in his orchard and is very reluctant to turn to mush.
> In nature, an apple tree relies on mammals and birds to distribute its bitter seeds. "Most of the animals are color blind, so being pretty isn't important to the apple tree. It is primarily odor that is attracting those mammals and birds," Leadbetter said. 
> That odor is enhanced when the apple's skin is punctured by insects or when the fruit begins to decay. "When you damage a fruit, it will ripen faster and be even more aromatic," Leadbetter said. "Nature's design is to have an apple riddled with worms and cracked by disease."
> The thousands of amateur pickers already swarming through the state's orchards to pick their own all reach for perfect, pampered, unnatural fruit. Unshapely fruit or any with spots, scabs or anemic coloring are scorned.
> "What the consumer asks for today - a big, hard, red or yellow, crisp apple - totally flies in the face of nature's design. The apple grower today is being asked to produce something totally unnatural, which is why they must use some pesticides," Leadbeater said.
> A few years ago, Leadbeater made a study of fruit as it appears in the paintings by the Old Masters, here defined as artists whose works were created before DDT and other petrochemicals. "Most artists of the period tended to portray things in their best light, so probably these things looked even worse in reality. Every apple in those paintings had so many blemishes that today I couldn't legally sell it as a fancy or extra-fancy fruit," Leadbetter said.
> The Hampshire apple, a fruit patented by Leadbetter after it was discovered growing in his hillside orchard, keeps far better than most of the 80 varieties he grows. Harder and crisper than the McIntosh apple it resembles, the Hampshire was largely the result of an apple tree's need to cross-pollinate in order to bear fruit.
> "Cross-pollination greatly enhances biodiversity. In the next ice age, peaches may not survive but apples probably will," Leadbetter predicted.
> All apples grown commercially are propagated by grafting genetic cloning of their parents. The first known Hampshire apple tree, however, sprang up naturally in a spot where a dead tree had been removed. Fruit from the small tree was picked for several years and mixed in with the McIntosh apples from the same row.
> "At the point it began to produce a half bushel or so, someone paid attention to it and said, 'Gee, this isn't a Mac after all. It's well-colored but not mature at the normal picking time for Macs,' " Leadbetter said.
> At that point, Leadbetter began the six-year process that leads to a patent. Every aspect of the apple and the tree it came from had to be exhaustively investigated and described in scientific terms. Years of experiments - bagging blossoms and hand-pollinating them, grafting buds from the original tree to see if the Hampshire apple could be produced on other rootstock - had to be conducted.
> On his second attempt, Leadbetter received his patent. "Ultimately, we try to sell it and get a little royalty, but for now it's a fantastic eating apple and a grower's dream," he said.
> The Hampshire apple Leadbetter succeeded in patenting did in many ways create itself. But people lucky enough to simply stumble upon an improved version of nature's work growing in the wild are unlikely to succeed when they try to patent their find.
>
> > Hello. At the NAFEX Conference in August, we visited an apple orchard. It was 
> > the first one we visited. I believe it was called Adams Nursery or Gold Hill 
> > Orchard. The owner mentioned a new apple variety called, "Hampshire". I wanted 
> > to check it out, but cannot find the orchard on the Internet. Does anyone 
> > have information on how I might contact them. Thanks so much, Waite Maclin, Maine 
> > (Zone 5) and a pleasant Thanksgiving Celebration to everyone! 
> > 
>
>
>
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