Why Citizen Scientists Are Working to Cultivate New Apple Varieties Apr 05, 2021 Long before scientists started breeding varieties, new types of apples spawned naturally over many years. Photography by Ellen Cavalli
Ellen Cavalli has a modest apple-hoarding problem. On the back porch of her home, located on the Sonoma County farm where she makes cider with her husband, sits a large refrigerator filled with her collection of more than 100 different kinds of apples and crab apples which have names like Arkansas Black, Dabinett, Hewe’s Virginia, Rhode Island Greening and Porter’s Perfection as well as a small handful of pears and quince.
Take a DIY cider tour of Vermont Diane Bair
Could Vermont become the Napa Valley of the cider industry? Why not, say the folks at the Vermont Cider Association (www.vermontcider.com). They’re planning to design a Vermont Cider Trail, “a real destination for cider enthusiasts,” says vice president Sara Trivelpiece of Champlain Orchards. “Cider is so versatile, and it can bridge the gap between wine, beer, cocktails, and seltzer while being made from real, sustainable fruit.”
For the record, we’re talking hard cider, or what the rest of the world calls, simply, cider. (What we call “cider,” they call “apple juice.”) Most have between 5 percent and 7 percent alcohol by volume. This beverage has a long history in New England. For Colonists, potable water was scarce, so drinking fermented beverages was the healthy choice. Historians note that even children drank a weakened hard cider called “ciderkin.”
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Why Apple Detectives Are Tracking Down Lost Varieties Dec 21, 2020 Behold a Streaked Pippin!
The phrase “lost and found” is being imbued with fresh meaning thanks to the Lost Apple Project.
Since 2014, the nonprofit organization has found 23 lost or nearly extinct apple varieties. At least 17,000 named varieties were once grown here after early colonists brought apples to America; today, there are just 5,000. The group seeks to identify and preserve heritage apple trees planted before 1920 in the Pacific Northwest.
“The history these old apple trees have is just incredible,” says Dave Benscoter, a former FBI agent and IRS investigator, who runs the Lost Apple Project with EJ Brandt.