North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran and/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

Maria,  there was a local apple collector who had a variety he said was 
called "Big Jelly" because it was used to make apple jelly.  He said it was 
"sour enough to make a pig squeal".   Alas after collecting about 150 vars 
of apples and pears he discovered he was in a frost pocket and the blooms 
were wiped out year after year, so he cut the trees down.  Mind you, he'd 
grafted and given away many hundreds of trees in the meanwhile.  I had never 
thought about growing a sour apple, but now that you have mentioned it I 
quite like the idea.  I planted Toya Nishiki flowering quince because I'd 
found out how useful the fruit were for preserves, only to find that it 
freezes out most years on our windy site.  Alas, meanwhile the nice big bush 
at Tech has been removed, so I have lost my source of free quince fruit.  An 
apple might make a more reliable substitute for our property.  I don't know 
if "Big Jelly" can still be found locally, so does anyone know of any 
southern type sour apples?         Donna