North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Spidra Webster <spidra@gmail.com>]

Heirloom varieties have been obscure for many decades, but I have to say I've seen signs of life. When I was growing up in the late '60s, early '70s, our So Cal markets had only Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and (Newtown) Pippin. Pippin was soon replaced by Granny Smith.  Just the other day my mom came home from that same supermarket chain with some Arkansas Black apples. I was dumbfounded. I never expected to see those in a mainstream supermarket.  Now that market has Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Newtown Pippin, Gala, Fuji, Jazz, Braeburn, Arkansas Black, Cripps Pink, Granny Smith and a couple more depending on time in the season.  Only some of those are heritage apples, but I think there's cause to be cautiously hopeful.

You'll never see the more obscure varieties in a supermarket but they never were. As long as we see them at Farmer's Markets, we're in good shape. And at least along the coast of CA, you can see about 25 different varieties through the season at various markets. That's a lot more variety than the 3 I grew up with.

Megan Lynch

http://www.meganlynch.net

On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 5:32 PM, Doreen Howard <gardendiva@charter.net> wrote:

Heirloom apples are disappearing, according to this blog.

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog_post/apple_varieties_disappear_from_u.s._markets/#When:17:52:38Z
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