North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>]

Fruity folk,
Maybe you are aware that the Seed Saver's Exchange (SSE) has a pre-1900 apple 
collection housed on their farm in Decorah, Iowa. This year, for the first 
time (I 
think), the SSE membership listings catalog is offering scionwood from the 
collection. If I recall correctly, the collection holds 700 varities of 
apples, 
some fairly rare and some originating in the Midwest and relatively unknown. 
I am 
not sure if you absolutely have to be a member to order wood, but one will 
not 
recieve the listing if not a member.
As per a recent offlist exchange about repositories being slow on the uptake, 
is 
the germplasm repository which holds apples still interested in such stuff 
like the 
aforementioned SSE collection? A few apples in the collection are unique. It 
would 
seem that a few individuals and organizations have found/collected local or 
regional varieties that are not available thru the repository (I am thinking 
of 
some Southern states fruit explorer)s. Is this a problem, and what end 
(collector 
or repository) needs to remedied?
Just a Heads Up,
Heron Breen
zone 4, Maine