North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Betty Mayfield <bmayfield@opusnet.com>]

To the list,

This recent story from the Wall Street Journal 
tells of the revival of heirloom apple varieties.

Betty Mayfield
northwest Oregon
*******************************
Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27, 2010

Before the Mac, Vintage Apples
Farmers and Stores Push Thousands of Heirloom 
Varieties, Rediscovering the Duchess of Oldenburg

By ANNE MARIE CHAKER

Roxbury Russet has a nutty flavor. Strawberry 
Chenango smells like roses. Cornish Gilliflower is reminiscent of clove.

Farmers and chefs treat them like fine wine, but 
these are apples—"heritage" or "heirloom" 
varieties that were common on American tables as 
far back as colonial times but today are rarely 
tasted. Now, a number of orchards and apple 
historians are growing these old varieties again 
and promoting them to restaurants, distributors 
and grocers. The apples are showing up in ciders and next to pork roasts.

"Heirloom" is a potent food-marketing buzzword, 
helping once-forgotten plant varieties and even 
animal breeds command premium prices. Heirloom 
apples were regionally popular for generations 
but have ceased to be cultivated commercially. 
From the 1950s on, mass-production farming 
favored reliable apples that could stand up to 
shipping, and stores have been dominated by 
apples from fewer than a dozen familiar types, 
including McIntosh, Red Delicious, Fuji and Granny Smith.

The heirlooms, in contrast, with freckles, 
stripes and other visual peculiarities, buck the 
modern idea of what an apple looks like. Often 
priced in the $3.99-a-pound range, they can cost 
up to twice as much as common apple varieties. 
They are coming back strong nonetheless, as the 
increasing numbers of people who cook and eat at 
home seek out novel ingredients.

Unusual appearance can be a problem at some 
more-commercial venues. "The heirloom apples look 
different. The russeting, how they're 
multicolor—those are normally no-nos and cause 
for rejection in other varieties," says Michael 
Rozyne, co-director of the Canton, Mass., 
nonprofit Red Tomato, which works to get local 
farm produce into mainstream supermarkets. "We 
can't sell them very well unless we create the 
romance and the story and the history that goes with it," he adds.

Mainstay varieties make up as much as 90% of 
apples sold in grocery stores, says Gary Nabhan, 
professor at the University of Arizona who 
founded Renewing America's Food Traditions, an 
organization of nonprofits that aims to restore 
endangered crop species. This year, focusing on 
apples, the group has listed more than 600 
forgotten and seldom-seen types that it wants to 
bring back, whether through promotional events or 
free distribution of grafting material.

Prof. Nabhan, who studies farming and culture, 
says 15,000 different apples were once grown and 
eaten in the U.S. Today, he says just one-fifth 
that number are available from nurseries and 
other sources, and most are at risk of being lost 
to commerce or disappearing altogether.

Apple orchards were once fixtures of American 
communities, typically growing varieties that 
were well-adapted to local conditions. With the 
consolidation of farming and the advent of better 
ways to ship, many small orchards disappeared in 
the decades after World War II. Slow Food USA's 
catalog of 200 endangered foods, "The U.S. Ark of 
Taste," lists seven endangered heirloom apple 
varieties, including Granite Beauty and the Newtown Pippin.

Today, the U.S. apple-industry is concentrated 
mainly in Washington and New York states. Modern 
varieties are bred to be tough travelers, easily 
packed and good-looking on store shelves. The 
upshot, some experts say, is that the modern 
apple has sacrificed a lot of flavor. In 
contrast, heirloom apples—once popular for 
pressing into cider, or for their ability to hold 
up in baking and cooking—have a range of flavors, 
from tart to sweet to spicy and aromatic.

At a recent vintage-apple tasting organized by 
Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's historic estate in 
Charlottesville, Va., 59 people sampled and rated 
several hard-to-find varieties. Jenny Heap, an 
Arlington, Va., marketing manager, noted that the 
Yellow Bellflower has "notes of cilantro." Andrea 
Reusing , chef and owner of the Lantern 
Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., uses some of 
these rare apples, sourced from a nearby orchard, 
because the unusual flavors are fun to pair with 
other foods. Earlier this month, her menu 
featured a dish of roast pork and the English 
Golden Harvey apple, a small fruit Ms. Reusing 
says has a "spicy, plummy, cardamom" taste.

Lost Nation Orchard, in Groveton, N.H., is 
planted with 80 types of apples, many of them 
heirlooms; it sells them on weekends in fall. 
Among the varieties owner Michael Phillips grows 
is the Tolman Sweet, an old baking apple that he 
says reminds him of banana, and Pink Pearl, an 
inside-out apple (the skin is yellow and the flesh is pink).

People can buy a $50 orchard share for the 
season, including three pecks (about 30 pounds) 
of any apple he grows and a bonus half-peck of 
the Duchess of Oldenburg, a Russian apple that 
came to the U.S. in the 19th century. It's "an 
incredible summer apple," known for its excellence in pies, Mr. Phillips says.

Kings Super Markets Inc., a specialty grocery 
chain in New Jersey, has begun carrying heirloom 
apples. They've been off to a slow start, says 
Paul Kneeland, vice president of produce. Regular 
apples "might sell at a rate of three to one" 
compared with the heirlooms, he says, which cost 
about twice as much per pound. Chatham 
Marketplace, a food co-op in Pittsboro, N.C., 
posts short histories for some of its vintage 
varieties, provided by the grower, Raven Rocks 
Orchard of Blowing Rock, N.C. "With every type, 
they send a sign that says where it originated, 
what part of the area it was grown in, around 
when it was first talked about," says produce manager David Dellea.