North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

Jonathan Kirsch posted this to the NAFEX Facebook group with picture:

"Wonderful passion fruit (maypop) and pomegranate grown in the piedmont 
of NC. Why aren't these grown commercially here????"

My reply:

Lawrence London:
Please tell me more about growing pomegranites here. I am 11 miles West 
of Chapel Hill. I have a few wild maypops that have persisted for many 
years on my farm property. Here's another fruit ideally suited to the 
red clay and silt loam soils of this part of the Piedmont NC region: 
Stayman Starkspur Winesap apples. Yes they are succeptible to cedar 
apple rust in some places but not all, depends on local conditions. 
Example: Braxton's Sawmill on Lindley Mill Rd. has/had a huge SSW near 
the owner's home. I picked many bushels one year off the tree and off 
the ground. They were large rough skinned squat apples with absolutely 
delicious flavor, sour, sweet, crunchy and an unusual grainy texture; 
after harvest I still had 1/4 bushel in my refrigerator crisp and full 
of flavor ready to eat in May of the following year. What a market fruit 
crop to grow! Yes, why don't they grow SSW here for market? Do the 
pomegranites require winter protection and if so can they be grown in 
containers? I would really be interested in hearing answers to these 
questions. Thanks. LL

A recipe for SSW, raw and with sweet Barhis dates:

Chill the SSW apples

core and cut into large slices

feed slices into a hand crank, tabletop mounted meat grinder with coarse 
screen

add many Barhis dates along with the apple slices to the grinder

put coarse apple-date sauce in bowl and enjoy this excellent raw food 
for breakfast by itself - make it the whole meal