North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

A friend who visited Italy told me that all the apples he tried there would be considered over ripe and mealy by our standards.  Seems to be the way the Italians like them.
=Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Mar 21, 2005, at 8:10 AM, Thomas Olenio wrote:

Hello all,

One good way for me to find the Annurca apple in north america may be to raise other people's interest in the apple.

Considering the history of this apple, I wonder why more commercial people are not interested in it...

"Annurca grown commercially in the Campania region of Italy since Roman times accounted for 90% of production until the 1960s when it fell to 20%, due to a labour intensive growing and harvesting technique. However it is now back to 70% of the acreage due to new growing techniques and a recognition of its supreme flavour which gives it a 30% premium in price.
Grower April 3 2003 pp20-21"

An ancient apple that bears 70% of the market and is sold at a premium.  Must have something going for it, we a missing out on.