Field of Science
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Hivestorm1 year ago in Pleiotropy
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The Site is Dead, Long Live the Site1 year ago in Catalogue of Organisms
Heritage apples
TPP wishes he'd thought of titling an article about heritage apples, Core Values. This link shows some great old color illustrations and some nice notes about some famous varieties of apples, and TPP knew their source immediately, The Apples of New York (2 vol. 1905). As an apple fancier TPP owns an excellent condition copy of these books that one of my best friends found in a used book store for $10 some 25 years ago and gave me for a birthday present. What friends! A facsimile version (sniff) now sells for $35-65 whereas the real thing sells for well upwards of $300, if you can find a copy. This is the primary reference for heritage apple varieties grown in the USA and at the time of this publication over 1600 varieties of apple were being grown in New York state. Wow! Loss of this genetic heritage is a problem, and far fewer varieties are grown now. A few people still try to maintain some of these varieties, e.g., the Tree-mendus Fruit farm in sw Michigan grows over 200 varieties of apple. TPP had a great time discussing and tasting varieties with a patriarch of this family farm, and that included the Delicious, the apple that they ruined to breed the Red Delicious.
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2 comments:
Oh, the Cornell apple barns - what wonderful color and fragrance. And the farm stands, and the farmers who could break apples in their hands (a trick I never learned). And most of all, the Northern Spies and all the other wonderful old apples that I never see here in way downeast Maine.
And I too mourn my lost opportunities to get the (used) copies of the Apples of New York. Dang!
Upstate New York, my heart's home.
BTW, I'm not a robot but an 82 year old woman with cataracts, and your spam catchers dump many of my comments.
Terribly sorry about the spam catchers. TPP has complained to the FoS management because even Mrs. Phactor has had difficulty with them.
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