Folks,
Received the annual year-end letter from Tom Brown, on his year's
experience searching for old (mostly Southern) apple varieties.
Thought it might be of interest to some of you, and I'm sure Tom would be
interested to hear from any who have or know of any old apple
varieties.
Hope you all have a joyful and safe holiday season.
Lucky Pittman
To: Friends of Old
Apples
December 7, 2002
From: Tom Brown
Apple Search---2002
I want to thank everyone again for your
assistance in helping me locate heritage apples in 2002. It was a
very productive year in which about 130 apple varieties were found.
One of my top finds was the Hall apple which is a great tasting small red
apple, long thought extinct. It was one of the most highly regarded
dessert apples in the south.
Last year I found the Junaluska apple with the
help of John Crawford of Macon County. It was the famous apple
which can probably be traced back to a tree originally owned by the
Cherokee Chief, Junaluska. This year I was proud to be able to
donate three grafted Junaluska apple trees which were planted at the
Chief Junaluska Memorial and Gravesite near Robbinsville, NC. I
also donated four Junaluska trees to the Lake Junaluska Assembly and one
tree to the Tsali Manor Senior Center in Cherokee.
The complete list of rare and lost apple
varieties found during 2002 is as follows: Accordian, Amy, Ann, Balsam,
Baltimore Red, Bank (Wilkes Co.), Barn, Big Rambo, Billy Sparks
Sweetning, Biscuit, Bitter Queen, Black Bud, Black Limbertwig, Branch,
Buckingham, Bug Horn, Burningtown Spice, Butler, Candy, Catawba, Cherry,
Chickasaw, Chintz, Church, Coffee, Coffey Seedling, Council, Cow,
Cullasaga, Curtis Cheese, Curtis, Darnell, Davids Winter, Davis (large),
Donnely Sweet, Dula Beauty, Everhart, Fall Limbertwig, Fall Rose, Fired
Sweet, Flat Top, Golden Twig, Gold, Gragg, Grandma (Madison Co.), Green
Horse, Green Pearmain, Green Russet, Green Sweet (Wilkes Co.), Half Acre,
Hall, Harding, Horseshoe, House, Ingram, Iron Wedge, Jack, Jarrett
(fall), Jarrett (summer), Jeff Cox, Jewel Smoker, Joe Buff (Yellow Buff).
Juicy Sweet, July Stripe, Kansas Sweet, Karn, Lady Blush, Lady Finger,
Late Queen, Lewis Green, Lieby, Little Brushy Spice, Little Limbertwig,
Lutes Great Keeper, Manson Beauty, Miller, Mongolian, New York World,
Nantz, Neverfail, Night Dropper, Nim, Nursery, October, Paint, Pokey
Seedling, Pound Russet, Powder Spring June, Puff, Rabbit, Red Bird, Red
Harvest, Red Horse, Red Jordan, Red Pippin, Red Sheepnose, Rockingham
Red, Romanite, Rubez, Ruslin, Rusty Pippin, Scott, Sealy, Sheep, Sidelin,
Spice (Ashe Co.), Stine, Sugar Core, Summer Buff, Sweet Buff, Tommy,
Tough Hide, Trout, Twenty Ounce, Virginia Ben Davis, Water, Water Core,
Water Sweet, Watts Limbertwig, Wax, West, Wilsons Red June, White
Buckingham, White Sheepnose, Winter Fleming, Winter Queen, Winter
Neverfail, Worlds Wonder, Ruby Red, Yellow Queen, Yellow Sheepnose,
Yellow Spitzenburg, and Yellow Sweet (Avery Co.). What is even more fascinating than the apples
themselves are the stories behind them.
In the early 1900s the Brushy Mountain Nursery of Pores Knob, NC sold an
apple called the Mongolian. It was large to very large, flat, the
reddest red you have ever seen, very waxy, and ripe in the fall.
Two years ago I found that there might be Mongolian trees at an old
Fortner home place on the Wilkes/ Alexander County line. I actually
never visited the site because I then learned that the very old trees had
been pushed out in a land clearing operation. Bad luck such as this
in just missing an apple variety is rare. More typical is the good
luck which followed over the next two years.
Herb Key of Wilkes County made contact and
wanted to show me some apple trees in Virginia where he worked repairing
stringed musical instruments. Through him I met
J. C. Greear who said that he would help me look for the old
apples. Mr. Greear in turn introduced me to Leslie Call who
had several old trees (Cotton Sweet, Neverfail, etc.). The next
winter I went to her home to get cuttings for grafting. One of her
apples was called the Clothes Line apple because it was a single limb
grafted into a tree and extended over her clothes line. The
following fall I went to see some of the apples Ms. Call had collected
for me. Also she had about five of the Clothes Line apples.
As soon as I saw them, I said to myself, This is probably the
Mongolian, as it perfectly fit the unique description. I later
showed the apples to three Fortner family members who confirmed the
identity of the Mongolian.
Finding the Mongolian was incredible good
fortune, but more was to come from this single trip to Virginia.
About two miles before I reached Ms. Calls home I saw three men standing
in front of a garage. I stopped and talked to them about old
apples. One of them (Hobert Hall) mentioned that he had an apple
tree he wanted me to look at. After visiting Ms. Calls I went by
the Hall home. The tree still had many apples. The apples
were large, almost round, greenish yellow, with a little red blush and
some russet spots, and having a delicious flavor. It perfectly fit
the description of the Catawba apple which had been in the area. I
later mailed some of the apples to a man in Rockingham County who
confirmed the identification, having seen the apples in Patrick Co.,
VA.
Did you know that there is a connection between
the US Dept. of Agricultures decision to import Russian apple varieties
in 1870 (including the Lieby apple) and my search for a very rare North
Carolina gemstone called Hiddenite? I grew up about 15 miles from
the old Hiddenite mine and as a child I was always fascinated by the
stories involving the mine. When I remarried I wanted to give my
wife a special ring with a Hiddenite stone. Unfortunately when the
man mounted the stone he used a soft type gold and improperly modified
the mounting. This resulted in the stone eventually being lost
(cry, cry, cry). I then started trying to find another Hiddenite
stone. I eventually went to the home of an excellent gemstone
cutter, Paul Burton. On one of the visits I decided to ask Mr.
Burtons neighbor (Paul Curry) about his apple trees. He had a
Queen apple and he also described a Leiby apple that he remembered from
the Shepherds Cross Roads area of Wilkes County. This started a
two-year search for the Lieby. The search was complicated by the
fact that there was another apple in the area called Liddy. When I
had trouble finding the Lieby I started to wonder if Lieby could just be
another way of saying Liddy. In the past I had talked to Paul
Clanton, of Iredell County, about the old apples he remembered. One
time when I called his home, he said that he wanted to show me some trees
at the home of a neighbor. The apples were medium to large, round
and a little pointed, yellow almost covered with dull red streaks, and
having a good but slightly dry taste. When someone mentioned the
name Lieby at a near-by store, it finally dawned on me that the apple
could possibly be the Lieby, as it fit the general description. It
was later positively identified as the Lieby. What is so
exciting about the old applesearch is the wonderful and
unpredictable routes down which I am eventually led. I never
did find a Hiddenite stone, but instead Mr. Burton cut a beautiful clear
green Moldavite stone (formed from condensed rock vapors after being hit
by a meteorite---Czech Republic).
I hope you and your family have a very happy
holiday season.
Tom Brown, 7335 Bullard Road, Clemmons, NC 27012
Phone:336-766-5842 E-mail:tombrown@northstate.net
[NAFEX] 2002 Apple search newsletter,
Lucky Pittman, 12/23/2002