According to Seed Savers Exchange’s Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory, apple varieties have decreased from 14,000 to 1,500. Today, many Americans only have access to the 11 varieties that comprise 90% of apples sold commercially.
Why the decrease? To discuss this conundrum, apple experts met last month for the “Forgotten Fruit Summit” in Madison, Wisconsin to brainstorm solutions and share best practices for conserving apples, including 'restoration strategies, genetic mapping and farmer training programs.' The summit was sponsored by Slow Food USA and RAFT (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) alliance, and included participants from Slow Food-Chicago, Chicago Rarities Orchard Project, Chicago Botanic Garden, Midwest Food Connection, North Pond Restaurant, and Green City Market.
The summit also included a day-long workshop, led by 20 apple experts for beginning apple growers. The beginner growers came from Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan to learn how to preserve seeds for the next generation.
Excerpts from the press release:
Dr. Gary Nabhan, founder of RAFT alliance (in the photo below), noted that,
“Apples once flourished on farmsteads in early America… they were nurtured by farmers and landowners. But we are losing [these orchards], the agricultural lands and knowledge of how to care for them… It is time to link people committed to land conservation with those interested in preserving the diversity of foods to put them back on our tables.”
Photo credit to Mark and Slow Food USA
Why is apple culture worth saving? According to Ben Watson, author on ciders and chair of the Slow Food-USA Ark of Taste committee,
“Today, consumers are presented with a very narrow spectrum of fruit varieties (e.g., Granny Smith, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious) and told that this is all that an apple can be. We lack the consumer support that would make it profitable for local orchards to store fruit, grow a wider variety and justify staffing and other expenses to keep the farm operating year-round.
“Until we re-instill apple knowledge in consumers, our orchards will continue to struggle and go out of business. We need to increase the number of American consumers who know about good apples – who seek them out and demand them, whether at the grocery store, the farmer’s market or directly from the orchard itself. I’d like to see people seeking out Red Astrachans and Yellow Transparents in late summer for making applesauce and early pies… then moving on to wonderful dessert apples like the balsamic Mother or the floral Opalescent in September… and then, late in the season, looking for long-storing winter apples like Roxbury Russet and Northern Spy.”
"We Americans share a rich apple heritage, and we deserve to sample from the whole palette, which in the end reflect our own diversity and the best of our democratic nature.”
