North America used to have a much more diverse potpourri of apples . In fact , it ’s approximate that as many as 14,000 different varieties of apples were grown here in the nineteenth one C . Today , only about 90 miscellany are commercially grown .
From theBrooklyn Botanic Garden :
But in the 19th one C , apples came in all form and guises , some with jumpy , sandpapery cutis , others as misshapen as potatoes , and ranging from the size of a cherry to great than a grapefruit . Colors ran the integral spectrum with a wonderful impressionist array of patterning — kick , chevron , splashes , and battery-acid . There was an apple for every community , taste , intent , and time of year , with winter kind especially appreciate . Apples were used for bring in cyder , baking , drying , eating out of handwriting — even as farm animal feed .
Compare all of this to the 90 or so varieties arise commercially in North America today , or to the smattering of shining cultivar on display at the local supermarket , and you are immediately confront with a pomological conundrum : How could Americans rise 14,000 dissimilar apples in the 19th century , and a hundred years afterward be conversant with only a few variety , most notably , ‘ Red Delicious ’ , ‘ Golden Delicious ’ , and ‘ Granny Smith ’ ?
you could read more about the history of apples and their “ hereditary fingerprinting ” in the 2009 report , designation of Historic Apple Trees in the Southwestern United States and Implications for Conservation . [ pdf ]
persona : Actress Emma Haig bite into an orchard apple tree via Getty
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