Extinct Apples and the Golden Age of American Pomology

[@machintelligence]

My great grandfather amused his neighbors by planting an orchard in his 70th year. He got the last laugh, however, since he lived to be 94 and ate quite a few apples.

[@machintelligence]

I'll take your word for it. I turned 70 this year and I'll have to buy some fruit trees.

[@sarcasmo57]

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."- Greek proverb.

[@johndifrancisco3642]

@@sarcasmo57 Awesome proverb! Words to live by on SO many levels. Thanks for posting that.

[@mueford]

I'm fifty and when I planted scores of fruit trees eight years ago my mother in law said " Those take a long time to produce- you are stupid , Stupid , STUPID " ! Fast fwd . to now my three year old daughter's favorite thing is to eat fruit off our trees . I always take my mother in law some pears .

[@jacobhayes5245]

@@sarcasmo57 I was about to add this. Good stuff.

[@richardgrimesjr8760]

I was bitten by the "apple planting bug" 5 years ago at the age of 60. I now have 170 varieties of apples (mostly heirlooms) growing on my land. My Fletcher Sweet should produce some apples this year.

[@Liz-sc3np]

Richard Grimes Jr Living the dream!

[@ratherbwithhorses]

I bet the bees love you.

[@alex0589]

Awesome

[@tj21bem]

Wow! Congratulations!

[@AdamsFamTCG]

Good job Rick Grimes. I cant wait to get some land, and grow my own food. I rather work the land, donate and sell food than customer-service too others for hourly pay. Im envious. Keep it up.

[@Scott_From_Maine]

Maine has an apple historian named John Bunker who goes around looking for nearly forgotten varieties. Most towns had their own.

[@mspiccolo]

Scott from Maine of course Maine does. That’s awesome. Go John!

[@robbrown5702]

I bought a couple of "Aunt Penelope Winslow" from Fedco . My family is descended from her and the story of how she brought the original tree from Marshfield Mass to our island in the 1700s always was an inspiration for my interest in apples.

[@robbygreene7428]

Time well spent

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@jodywho6696]

I had an old orchard in Massachusetts when Maine was still a part of Massachusetts. Still alive.

[@SuperHigear]

Loved this video, thanks! In the late 1980s I located an old apple tree on a plot of land that during the late 1800s - early 1900s had been home to a Hotel next to a RR station in the rural hills of Erin, NY. during it's heyday. The tree was struggling to survive, having split in half at it's trunk and been abandoned for decades. Even so, the tree produced a healthy crop of about 3 bushels of medium sized slightly tart crisp red apples with a pure white meaty interior that year. Surprisingly to me, anyway, those apples were tart enough to use for cooking yet versatile enough to eat as a treat, and they stored well over the winter. After talking with several greenhouse owners & plant growers and finding no one who could, with certainty tell me the name of these apples I called Cornell University. After a lengthy and enjoyable discussion with a professor of horticulture he narrowed the possibilities down to a once popular local variety found on many family farms called the "Snowball" Apple. To his knowledge it was the last remaining Snowball apple tree. Sadly, attempts to clone that tree were unsuccessful. Even so I considered it quite a thrill to have been the last known person who was able to enjoy a true taste of a Snowball Apple and a taste of history.

[@zarathean8758]

you dont clone apples you graft them to another apple rootstock

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@KCFreitag]

Worth mentioning is that hard apple cider--apple jack--was proposed to become America's national drink. The cider was fortified by covering the barrel in a snow bank, and then the water in the cider would freeze first, at the outer part of the barrel, concentrating the alcohol toward the center. The liquor was "tapped" with a hot poker to reach the apple jack in the center.

[@Regolith86]

pen: that's a pretty rude way to respond to someone, especially considering the fact that you're dead wrong. The process is known as fractional freezing, or freeze distillation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_freezing#Alcoholic_beverages

[@ralphdye451]

Kurt, absolutely correct. History records that American independence might well have been discussed and planned over tankards of hard apple cider. Beer and wine were barely getting started and had to be imported, so the cost was appropriately high but apples were easy to grow and cider was easy to make and cheap to consume.

[@robertqueberg4612]

pen mightygun No my person of limited knowledge, it may be a wive’s tale in your mind, but not in my grandfather’s cider barrel. One winter about sixty years ago, my brother and I went rabbit hunting with Grandpa. He stated that we would have some “middlins” when we got to the house. Where upon he grabbed an old iron poker that happened to be next to the barrel, and broke through the ice. He then brought out a large glass pitcher, which he filled from a siphon hose. We retired to the house where he poured three big glasses of the sweet juice. By the time we had drunk this glass of cider, I thought that my face had fallen off. You state that theoretically it can’t happen, but after a bit of actual lab work in Grandpa’s kitchen, I have the experiences of two drunk boys to prove that it can and does happen. It may be the difference of specific gravities that separates the components, and allows the water to freeze.

[@chrisduke3251]

Very nice! I've made plenty of hard cider, and I've even heard the term for the middle of the barrel, but it's too warm here to get that. I'll just have to settle on the stuff that is 10X better than what can be store bought.

[@robertqueberg4612]

Chris Duke, Sir, it is time to buy a used chest freezer. Then you can have enough cold weather to make your own middlin’s. Drink one for me.

[@VulpesHilarianus]

Watching this reminded me of the story I heard that went along with a picture an elderly gentlemen showed me when I was a teenager. It was a picture of a farm, specifically a hillside looking up from behind a fence. On the side of that hill were four apple trees. Two were over a hundred years old when the picture was taken in the '60s. The third had been transplanted when it was a sapling, and had been used along with the other two to produce the fourth three. That fourth tree was the only known one of it's kind, and the farmer who owned it made a lot of money off of it. The apple trees are long gone now. Where it was is now a sandpit. The entire farm was turned into a golf course in the late '80s. A golf course that's suffering now because the wealthy population around here is too old to play, and the younger people can't afford it. I like to think that the farmer and his apple tree got indirect payback post-mortem.

[@dominicguye8058]

what a story

[@hovanti]

Great and interesting to know that there are "apple detectives" roaming about the wilderness, looking for forgotten apple trees. Who knows what forgotten variety might be brought back? It's as if those trees are holding onto history, just waiting to be re-discovered.

[@robbrown5702]

I know an older gentleman who does this and them grafts these onto a huge apple tree in his yard. He has over 90 varieties , all tagged and recorded on this tree. You should see all the different apples in the late summer and fall! I have taken a load of students to his house and listened to his lecture on them. I took him on a long walk out in the woods to get a graft off of an old abandoned tree myself.

[@hovanti]

@@robbrown5702 That would be quite interesting; I'd enjoy seeing that.

[@kennethroberts6769]

@@hovanti See the youtube channel Skillcult he does a lot of apple grafting and has a tree that has 150 varieties.

[@hovanti]

@@kennethroberts6769 Thank you, Kenneth.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@kennyhagan5781]

The enthusiasm in your videos is contagious. That's something special.

[@warrenokuma7264]

A flavor that deserves to be remembered!

[@robertharker]

Another one of your great non-war, not-military history to be remembered video. More please.

[@maxpayne2574]

Yes to much of history is focused on wars

[@michaelwiebers9656]

Robert Harker I was going to say the same thing. Not all of history is battles and wars. I enjoyed this snippet very much!

[@jerryross5423]

What a great episode! I have over 30 varieties of heirloom apple trees growing at my home. All were lovingly planted by my dad years ago. He believed the same as you - that history deserves to be remembered.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@FrankieGreen777]

This has been my favorite video of yours to this date. We have been collecting endangered, and extinct plants and trees for the last nine months, and understanding the commercial side effects has been mind blowing. Thank you for doing such a great job illustrating this.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@deanstuart8012]

First of all, I love your videos. However this has got to be one of your best yet. Where did you get the idea to produce a history of American apples? It has certainly brought back memories because at primary school in North East England in the 70's we learned all sorts of random stuff that wouldn't be fashionable today. So we learned about heroes such as Leonard Cheshire and Helen Keller, heroic events such as HMS Amethyst during the Yangtse Incident, banana farming in the Caribbean and some bloke called Johnny Appleseed in Ohio. Hard to believe as most of us hadn't been further south than York and London might have been on the far side of the moon. I think that our teachers were trying to inspire us, without being shackled by political correctness. I think that they wanted us to be more than factory fodder and to see that there was more to life than a County Durham former coal mining village. Please continue be inspirational.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

Dean Stuart thank you! I had seen an article on preserving heirloom apples some time ago and it was on my list. I will keep them coming.

[@banjoman101145]

History Guy, I wish to suggest a subject that you may want to consider. NPR did a story about blueberry cultivation...this was aired several years ago. Basically, a woman in southern New Jersey was searching for a cash crop for land that was poor for raising normal crops. This was during the Great Depression so she sought suggestions from one of the Federal agencies that were created to assist farmers. Anyhow, blueberries naturally grew in this acidic soil so seemed like a good choice to look into. She and her neighbors gathered wild plants, those with high production evolved into today’s large market not only in southern New Jersey but now around the world. I was fascinated to learn the history of this important crop.

[@MarkSmith-js2pu]

You Sir are a Genius. I always thought I was good at history, but you humble me. I learned about the history of apples for Pete’s sake and enjoyed every minute of it.

[@mikasaackerman3730]

ratio 😁🤣😂

[@shawngilliland243]

Johnny Appleseed - I love that guy! Thanks, History Guy.

[@RwingDsquad]

You’re so exited when talking about history. I love it.

[@bullettube9863]

What amazes me is that tastes have changed dramatically just in the past twenty years. Most of the heritage apples are more tart then sweet, while modern apples are way too sweet for my taste. Yet people want sweet apples, bananas, oranges and grapes, and they want them as big as possible. Think of the giant strawberries you find at the superstores, they are rarely fully ripe, showing white on the inside, nor as tasty as smaller berries, yet people think they are the best. Where I live there are several farmers who grow heritage apples and I look forward to the fall when harvest time comes around!

[@maxpayne2574]

Many people are sugar addicts I like tart flavor

[@adelechicken6356]

From the '40's on, my family raised a variety of strawberries called Robinson's, when there was enough water and plenty of sun, our larger berries fit 8 to a quart box and the 9th one sat on top. They were fully red through the middle, and so full of flavor that it just exploded in your mouth. In early July of '55, my Father picked about 60 quarts of perfect berries, sold them for $.60 a quart. He then took that money to pay the hospital bill for my Mom and new baby.

[@McSlobo]

In Finland we mainly have these smallish feisty acid bomb apples as domestic varieties. I don't know them by name but all of them are quite bitter so it doesn't matter what you buy. I guess there are some 10-15 major varieties but seems you can buy hundreds of others in your garden. In addition to being bitter the apples also rather juicy and very tasty - enjoyable. They cost two to four times more compared to imported sweet varieties but I solely eat domestic when available because the others taste just bland.

[@tomcondon6169]

Re: shipability. I have eaten a lot of golden delicious in my day. In my 20s, I happened to eat a golden delicious fresh off the tree. In groceries, golden delicious apples are yellow, nothing extraordinary. Fresh off the tree, they are golden, sometimes a reddish blush to them. They taste spectacular. I ate a lot of them in my early 20s.

[@This_is_my_real_name]

My favorite is a relatively new apple, the Honeycrisp. It's IMO the perfect blend of tart, sweet, crunch, and juicy. As an aside, I several decades ago discovered a simple technique for extending the shelf life of most apples by a truly staggering length of time. It's absurdly simple: just place fresh ripe, "crisp" apples into a ziplock freezer bag (freezer bag because it's thicker/less air-permeable), and seal it, after placing as many apples as possible into the bag. I had purchased some apples, bagged them up (so as to ensure that fruit flies would not be able to get to them), and the bag got lost behind some stacks of books and papers for quite a few months (can't recall how many). When I discovered it, my first thought was oh, great, a bunch of mushy old overripe apples, groan... -- but when I picked it up, I was shocked at how firm they felt. And when I crunched into one and took a big, juicy bite of the pleasantly still tart, tasty apple, I was blown away. Here in Michigan they grow a lot of apples, and there's a big industry involved in their cold storage. I never understood why the "hermetic storage" method wasn't used instead of costly refrigeration. Edited to add that I am not a botanist or a chemist (although I _have_ dabbled in photographic developer... development :) a few decades ago). So, this is admittedly sheer speculation: I suspect that the apples, at the peak of their ripeness, before they "go soft" emit some type of gas/hormone/pheromone/whatever, which has the effect of *_inhibiting_* further ripening of *_other_* apples. When all of the apples are sealed in an airtight bag -- at that ideal stage of ripeness (without bruises etc.), with as little "airspace" as possible (thus, the reason for putting as many as will fit into the bag), the small amount of air in the bag is rapidly loaded with this mysterious substance, halting the ripening of all of the apples, which enter a prolonged stasis condition. As I said, pure speculation, and if anyone has the definitive explanation as to what's actually happening I'd really like to find out! All I know is that I've had almost perfect success over the years, so long as I don't screw up by having too much empty space, or bruised/overripe/otherwise "imperfect" apples in the bag.

[@v.e.7236]

Yum! I love Honey Crisp & Pacific Rose. I live in an agricultural area known as the Salad Bowl (strawberries, raspberries, specialty greens/lettuces, asparagus, brusell sprouts, artichoke, etc.), where they have grown apples, mostly for Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, for a long time. I see murals of the different varieties that WERE available and I feel like I've missed out. Another nifty little snippet of Americana. Thank you.

[@jasonbeary8427]

I love your histories that aren't about generals, war, politicans and conquest. There is a lot of history in how people of the time lived their lives, the things they valued, who they admired and how the made their way.

[@BellTollsForThee]

Please please please make more videos on America's forgotten agricultural past! Thank you for bring to my attention the diversity and wonders of apples

[@PhilipLeitch]

The same story holds true for Australia. Strangely the most prized apples were lost to cardboard tasting bland varieties. I've herd stories that the UK farmers were forced to destroy non-market agreed varieties.

[@marykatherinegoode2773]

I know this is late, Philip, but I can see we have a mutual tragedy. In fact, there's more to the story then he's telling. At one point, the US was creating many times the cultivars the UK had for sale-there were literally thousands of different varieties.. Keep in mind that the first successful planting of apple trees would have come in New England in the 1640s, more than a hundred years before Captain Cook. The good news: Roxbury Russet, Rhode Island Greening, and Hightop Sweet still exist. These were first cultivated between 1640-1655 by the Puritans. They got lucky in part because of the conservative attitude of local farmers at the end of the 19th and into the 20th century. (That, and all 3 can adapt to backyard gardening.) The bad news: a lot of the apples that Southerners would have eaten and enjoyed from the colonial period were lost, some due to the Civil War, where Northern generals burned the crops on plantations and farms, some due to no longer having the money to maintain them, and others just plain went extinct. Later, on top of that, Prohibition became the law of the land. What the man in this video says is an understatement. Federal agents often would come to the farm and burn the orchard down. It was illegal to grow cider apples at one point, and all those years of careful breeding for alcohol went straight down the tubes. Only two cultivars survived and just by chance. Right now, in a few areas of the east, if you go deep in the woods sometimes you can find old Apple trees growing what clearly are apples, even if the cultivar's name is long forgotten. I would remind you that less time has elapsed since Oz has had to chuck the prized apples you mention. It might not be too late. If I were you, I would go on a hunt to see if there are any survivors,. Many that were once thought gone forever have been found that way here.

[@VB-bk1lh]

Back in the 70's when I was kid, we had a huge apple tree that grew behind our house, and there were many others that seemingly grew wild along a tree line along a field behind our house Around that area were several apple trees, and huge cherry trees, but all of them slowly died off and were gone before the decade was over. I had an uncle in PA who had a row of massive apple trees in his back yard, they were tall enough that we had to get a 12ft A ladder out atop an old flat bed trailer he towed behind his tractor to reach any of the apples. We would climb the ladder, and use newsboy bags to collect apples in, some of us would climb way up the tree and we used buckets and rope to pick apples which were ready to pick in early November or so. I remember pulling a huge wagon behind his old tractor that we had all picked. We'd take them up to the house where my grandmother and a few aunts would process them for cooking, canning, and pies for the holidays. Those trees were huge, as big as any of the shade trees I have here today. Fruit trees in general though are all but nonexistent in peoples yards here. Over the years I've tried a few trees but none lasted very long, they'd go maybe 10 years and either get diseased or just died off. I would have liked to have had a couple of huge apple trees on my lawn over the years but never could get one to grow into a viable tree and all attempts at seeding a tree have either given me inedible fruit or trees that don't survive to maturity. In the stores here, the only apple varieties I see these days are Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious, Fuji, Honey Crisp, Gala, and occasionally Empire and Pink Lady but the latter have become rare lately. The first three are the most common with Gala being quite common as a cheap, bagged option along with smaller Fuji and Red Delicious. I haven't seen Winesap, Granny Smith, Baldwin, Cortland, Stayman, or Jonathon apples here in a long time. My father swore by Winesap apples and wouldn't eat anything else, I've not seen those for over 20 years or more here. My grandmother would make pies using Winesap apples that grew on the farm my dad grew up on.

[@kennyhagan5781]

My maternal grandfather was part owner of a fruit market in East Texas in the 60 s and 70s He would have loved this video. Thank you for bringing back some old memories.

[@StephenMartin-n7j]

Love your your stories and the effort you put into each one. Thanks. I live in York County, Pennsylvania just east of the apple region of Adams County where there are still rolling hills of orchards as far as the horizon. However here in York County I over the last 50 years watched one orchard after another disappear to the point where once I had 5-6 orchards to get Crabapples and Quince to make and can jelly in the fall there is now only one still operating.

[@harveycovey2215]

My favorite episode thus far! I'm a small land-owner in Minnesota and current have 6 varieties of apple and 2 varieties of pear on my tiny 20 acres. I LOVE this channel! Keep up the excellent work. It is greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays to your family and friends.

[@scobbydoo773]

You are probably the only person in the world that can make even apples interesting.

[@AmWestColl]

I've always liked apples, but after your treatise on the subject....I LOVE apples. I sure would love to try the varieties that have gone extinct ....a very good video !

[@copper-tc6un]

The Golden Delicious Apple was discovered on my great great grandparents farm in Clay county West Virginia. Their name was Mullins. The rights to the tree was pur hased by a seed company, who erected a cage around the tree to protect their investment and prevent others from getting cuttings from it.

[@jbmbryant]

Very interesting video! The Arkansas Black was the most common apple variety used by people coming west by covered wagon. It was a very hardy variety that kept for many months in very harsh conditions. The downside was that they tasted like wood and were just about as juicy and sweet and tender as a 2x4. They are surprisingly still available today.

[@mikebetts2046]

They are much better if the season is long enough for them to properly mature. I grow them in my orchard in Michigan. Some years, hard and bitter. Other years, really great.

[@moonmunster]

I have an Arkansas Black tree. They are pretty good.

[@sarahmeacheam7517]

Hello from Washington! I love making Apple pie and Apple crisp

[@paulc7590]

Dixon Orchard used to be here in New Mexico. A forest fire allowed a mudslide to ruin their orchard. They went to Wisconsin. I encourage the people up north to check them out. They had several varieties, but my favorite was their Champagne. Absolutely wonderful.

[@edschermer]

When I was a youth, my family lived for a few years near the apple growing region of central Washington State. We could get the “oversized” apples from the packing plants....some were as big as melons!

[@wandabanks6756]

WOW

[@cephasmartin8593]

I love apples, but today's Delicious Apples are bland and almost tasteless. I remember the Delicious Apples from when I was a kid. Those were sweet and delicious, worthy of the name Delicious. My favorite apple today is the Braburn, a great apple for eating and forbaking into pies and cobblers. In fact, apple pie is my favorite fruit pie. Thank you for another interesting and informative video. I always learn something from your videos. This one is well worth remembering ... and eating.

[@yvobalcer]

Try to find Pink Lady, they are sweet, I always smell an apple before I buy, there is a perfume if sweet.

[@diabolikmitchell2960]

Most Delicious apples in the grocery store have been in cold storage anywhere from 9-14 months before the store gets them. And John Chapman turns over in his grave.

[@maxpayne2574]

Red Delicious has been bred to have such a thick skin and tough inside it has no juice and sweetness

[@dukecraig2402]

Try a Rome Red, it's like eating a ball of sugar.

[@tolfan4438]

, the apples are clones that are exactly the same it's your taste buds to change when you get older

[@Mark-zu6oz]

I'm glad people are looking for these old varieties. Once in a while I can find an old variety at roadside produce stands. There are quite a few places in New England that used to be orchards but the land was developed into houses and condos. It's not uncommon to see a few old apple trees still blooming on the periphery every Spring.

[@casaroccafamilyking]

Fantastic video! THANKS!

[@maple-leafs13]

I appreciate all your underappreciated historic videos, which I have been watching quite a lot prior to my daily sleep. They're very refreshing to the redundant ww2 history from other channels. This video evoked me to the great works of Paul cezane and Rene margritte. With that being said, would you make some videos illustrating the history of artist around the world and their influences? Thank you from Canada

[@moonmunster]

I have over 20 varieties in my field. I wish I had room for more. Some are fantastic eating, some are for cider. A good book - Old Southern Apples by Lee Calhoun. It is on Amazon.

[@ericcartman1168]

I find it interesting that hard cider was significantly more popular once than beer. Makes sense considering how common and accessible apples where.

[@unknowntraveller8633]

Same thing happened here in Australia, our heritage Apples are very quickly dissapearing. If you can find an old Apple the taste is so different to supermarket varieties

[@andrewwedman3953]

The big difference is also in the way the apples are grown! I planted a golden delicious tree and the flavour of naturally grown, minimally irigated, non fertilized apples left on the tree until late in the season is incredible compared with commercial products. Have also the same experience with other varieties. I live in a region of Germany where there are frequently fruit trees planted beside the road. They are freely available and I have discoverred some interesting varieties. Also towns plant fruit trees in some areas and allow harvest by the locals. Try and find an abandoned orchard and try apples in the fall.

[@nelsonbergman7706]

I always learn something from this channel

[@rick9977015]

What an interesting video, backin 1990...my parents took us to up to Michigan and we became Migrant workers there. Picking pickles, tomatoes, bell peppers and later in the year.. Apples! I have yet to find some of those delicious apples that we picked in Michigan now that i am back home here in the South. Thank you for the video, brought some really good memories of Michigan.

[@JH-nf4xd]

Hey, History Guy! I found this episode and the passenger pigeon one particularly interesting. In 1980, I found an 8 foot diameter American Chestnut stump ring on our farm in Kentucky. Would love for you to do an episode on that now almost extinct tree!

[@adhhxgxhhg]

Thank you very much for making these consice and informitive videos, hope you keep up the good work.

[@tanglediver]

Oh wow! I forgot an apple in the fridge at work one time. When I found it again, the seeds had begun to sprout, so I planted it. It is now a seedling in my front yard, I can't wait to see it grow!!

[@mikebetts2046]

Keep in mind, because it is a seedling and not grafted onto a dwarfing root stock, the tree will, 1. Want to grow larger than most. 2. Will take longer to mature and produce fruit. 3. Will most likely produce inferior fruit. Apple breeders will grow hundreds or thousands trying to find the particular quality they are looking for.

[@tanglediver]

@@mikebetts2046 Oh, I'm ok with a shade tree!

[@mikebetts2046]

I wish you well with the tree. At least make sure there is some other apple variety around that can pollinate it. You might get lucky and have a good apple tree. Most any white-blossomed crab apple will pollinate almost any other apple. I have a Whitney Crab in the SE corner of my orchard as insurance that all the other apple trees will have at least one fully compatible pollinator. Some ornamental crabs can also do this but I have not researched this much.

[@tanglediver]

@@mikebetts2046 Actually, there is a Gravenstein apple tree sapling in the back yard. The old parent tree died though after many decades of fruit bearing.

[@rogerhwerner6997]

Spent most of my adult life at archaeological field work, with the past 25 years focused on western mining, ranching, and homesteading.i can't begin to tell you how many abandoned fruit trees I've encountered in my years of walking. Find a fruit tree, find someplace nearby where folks lived in the 19th century. Apples, pears, figs, cherry, and plum were the most common discoveries. I had no idea so many varieties existed. I'd love a look at that apple variety source book 1804 to 1904. Might have helped me identify at least apple trees.

[@ALWhite-ub1ye]

I'm finishing up my grafting for the year listening to the History Guy, when he starts talking about apples. I'm fairly certain the surviving apple tree on my great-grandparents' farm is a Baldwin. It dates to the 20s or 30s. I'm rebuilding the orchard with 80 new trees this year with over 50 varieties. One I'm excited about is a volunteer, an unplanned seedling, from my neighbor's pasture. I've also got all sorts of historic and modern varieties going in.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

That’s fantastic! Thank you for keeping this History alive.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@elainegreen5855]

I love your channel!! Thank you, so much for doing such a great job!!

[@elijahdevoe717]

I am also a history buff, I thoroughly enjoy watching your channel - I live in Maine - I wanted to let you know that a second FLETCHER SWEET apple tree has been found in HOPE ( ME ) !!! Also for anyone interested the FLETCHER SWEET is available for purchase and you can buy pieces for clonning

[@michaeljohnson1057]

fantastic episode...thank you for the work you do...

[@mr.roboxihuman4344]

Well done. Thank you for this.

[@jacobmoriancumer7588]

My school, BYU-Idaho, has one of the largest and most varied apple orchards in the region, with over 150 different kinds of apple and fruit trees. This video gave me a new appreciation for those trees!

[@12gauge1oz]

Fascinating, another great story. Thank you.

[@johnransom1146]

Love the Ontario apple baskets in your photo. I'm from Ontario and used to work at an orchard as a kid. We had Tolman sweets, pippins, russets and many others that people wouldn't recognize today. I've gotten hold of some of these and planted them on my acre of permaculture orchard. Canada never had prohibition so alot of the cider varieties are still around.

[@mrdanforth3744]

I live in Ontario apple country and was told by old timers that a lot of orchards were wiped out by the winter of 1934. Spring came and the sap started running then came a killing frost that froze and split the apple trees. Another problem was most of the apples were packed in barrels and shipped to England. That trade was dying out. Today they wash and pack the apples individually in blue paper in big boxes. They are sold around the world.

[@lowifrles9813]

Great subject! Thank you, History Guy!

[@sylviahacker6695]

Great episode! I'm going to share it with my gardening group.

[@johnkelley9877]

A great tutorial on the apple. I was unaware there were so many varieties. Thanks for sharing this.

[@joaquinperez9146]

When I was a teenager 30 years ago, there were only red, green, and golden apples available at our local store here in Texas. Last year my wife and I did a wine tour of the Yakima region in Washington State and were stunned by all of the vast and different varieties of apples found there along with the grape vines and hop fields. I am glad that my local store now carries at least 10 types of those apples for sale.

[@michelepraught1600]

Wow, History Guy. So glad I was sent to check out your channel. Such great material and presentation. I'd say you should podcast but it's too much fun to watch. Keep it coming.

[@Dominic.Minischetti]

Fascinating! I never knew that about the golden delicious. I have found many apple trees while roaming the woods. I always figured there was a homestead there at one time when ever I found some trees.

[@flintlock3939]

A lot of feral apple trees come to be from being dropped through deer feces. Apples still make the most preferred deer bait, and in the fall, it always looks like there was a deer convention under my apple trees in the middle of the night.

[@wandabanks6756]

Do you search for new species?

[@Dominic.Minischetti]

@@wandabanks6756 I do not actively search for them.

[@mikemcnamara1986]

Still working on your back catalog. Not only is this episode especially delicious, it put an apple in my eye and a huge grin on my face. Thank you.

[@stingraybob8933]

Surprisingly, Utah has many unique varieties of apples still growing from the original settlers. When I was out there this summer I tried a variety called "translucent" that was very tasty, and had been growing in that one valley for nearly 200 years.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@bundaboy2974]

I really enjoyed this video. Years ago, I got tired of seeing the same old apple varieties sold in grocery stores. I knew there were many different kinds b/c we had local orchards where I grew up. Thank you!!

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

What a great subject. I have been pushing for a return to our agricultural past and have a wild idea to have local farms for our world since climate change is going to make our lives really difficult. And I wanted to do a similar thing as John Chapman, but of course I am doing a romanticized version. I want people in appropriate places to plant hemp and linseed and try to get off of plastic. We are going into the Autumn times, but with the melting of the Arctic ice sheet, we don't know what will happen. And so go out and throw hemp seeds and we will see what will happen. Why hemp? Ask the History Guy. But it helps detoxify the soil, it can restore the fungal hyphae, it can trap seven times more CO2 than trees, and it can make so many things it can replace plastic. When my parents grew up, there was no plastic. And farmers were forced to grow 1/4 hemp, 1/4 linseed and the rest food crops. This is part of the Windyday Concept. Think of our life on this planet.

[@laurienichols1209]

Very interesting.love your channel.

[@Smileybaloney]

This is a great episode. It was a great expansion on the Apple.chapter in Michael Pollan's book, The Botany of Desire.

[@Kws50201]

i watch your channel everyday. love your videos. i am hooked. thank you for making my life a bit more enjoyable with the jewels of forgotten history.

[@robertgutheridge9672]

Well done. And even more interesting to me as I live in Yakima Washington one of the largest apple growing area's of the world. As a teenager I picked them and working in a few packing warehouses. I have a suggestion for a episode. On hop's 80% of the worlds hop's are grown right here in the Yakima valley. If you do I have absolutely no doubt it will be a great view please continue with your great work. Thanks Rob G

[@TheHansoost]

Well presented and very interesting. Thank you.

[@stuffeyemake6506]

WOW , that IS an amazing snippet of history , when put in context of the role of food in civilization ! i love your videos , sorry im too broke to support your channel :(

[@valsblackcatsrule8740]

I so love apples! Living in New York State, I must tout our apples. Always better than Washington apples. And, living in an apple-rich area of Western NY, with many farmer's markets, fresh is best! Thank you for sharing a part of your day with us!

[@therightstuffAK]

Please continue to make these excellent videos, as they aren't too long, have lots of background information, and superb imagery! If you could, I'd love to see a few videos involving the early days (1950s-1960s) of space exploration, and the lesser known stories and challenges of that era in the quest to reach space and, ultimately, the moon. Thank you!

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

I have a couple on my list. I do enjoy space topics.

[@ttystikkrocks1042]

There's nothing better or more quintessentially American than a homemade apple pie baked with apples from the family backyard. I appreciated the treat as a child and cherish the memories to this very day. The trees in the yard are still producing, if not quite as well as they did half a century ago. Thanks again, grandma!

[@Branjensen27]

That was far more interesting than i thought it would be

[@bighaasfly]

What a great story! Really enjoyed your piece about bananas a while back too. Thanks so much!

[@JWSitterley]

What a great channel. Many times as I watch these shows, I find myself with a smile. :-) Thanks History Guy.

[@ryangrafft5360]

Thank you so much for all your videos!

[@RealLifeWorthLiving]

It's that mass comercialization that has destroyed my love for apples over the years. When my brothers and I were children we loved apples and my parents bought them, literally, by the bushels. Almost everyone had a tree of some sort of apple variety and every farmer had an orchard, or at least, a stand of apple trees. We lived in Hagerstown, MD and there were apples all around us, from Ringgold to Winchester, to Cave Town to Green Castle. We had relatives with orchards who gave us as many as my parents bought. We had pies, dumplings, cakes, apple sauce, apple everything. We would grab an arm load of apples and go outside to play. We had crab apple trees, too, from which my mother made pickled crab apples and crab apple jelly. From that perfect atmosphere of apple-heaven, it seems, I haven't found a real apple--that is, a fresh, juicy, ripened to perfection apple---anywhere in my places of service and abode.Just those, hard, far from ripe, cold storage, grocery store apples. All America really needs is a really good apple rather than a five cent cigar.

[@kevenquinlan]

Great vid. I'm from MN. When I was a kid there were almost no varieties of apples. Always with the Red and Delicious which, though red, isn't delicious at all and I hated them. McIntosh you could get sometimes, Golden sometimes and Granny smith's, which you really only use for pies. SO= I never really liked apples all that much. I did used to eat Crab apples off the tree's but they are very tart and not for everyone. Now, the amount of different ones you can buy= are awesome. I even eat apples once in a while and I don't care for fruit much. The Honey Crisp is great/ the Jazz is great/ but the Pazazz is my favorite. Crisp, Sweet, Tender, Juicy- it has all the things most people would want in an eating apple. Though fascinating the varieties I don't feel it's a loss to have just the 11 we have. A lot of the others really aren't all that great. 1st= most people don't bake anymore, so they don't bake pies, which used to be very common. Also, we don't drink much cider or hard cider, so those kinds also got nixed. The group we have now represent a good selection of eating apples, I think. Some I still don't like, the Pink Lady, though sweet- is a very Hard apple, I don't care to indulge in. So, though many varieties are lost to time, I think the focus on the ones we have are the most suitable for consumption.

[@georgedunkelberg5004]

LOOKUP "CRAB APPLES/INTERNET! NOT A VARIETY!

[@billycampbell854]

Your best program, realy down to earth.🖋

[@Rissy617]

My dad is an apple orchardist, he knows so much about apples! I grew up on an apple farm for a few years (in the town Johnny Appleseed was from!). I had my wedding in the orchard when the blossoms were in full bloom... I've got to watch this video with him!

[@fyrequeene]

Utterly fascinating. Who knew apples could be so interesting?

[@ForceSmart]

When I was about 5 or 6, my father planted an orchard of 40-50 trees, including several apple varieties. We moved away from that place when I was in high school, but some of my best memories of my childhood home are going out to the orchard and eating the fruit right off the tree. =)

[@laurie1536]

What an interesting snippet on Apple history! Our few trees here are loaded right now and almost ready to harvest.

[@b_uppy]

The pruned limbs/trees of undesirable apple varieties can be used to smoke meats, also.

[@tolfan4438]

Smoked bacon or any smoked meat for that matter when do you use Applewood smoked really makes a difference really nice flavor

[@michaeldavidson9939]

Mammoth Blacktwig is still here and going strong in my orchard.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up. Maybe send some seeds?

[@dennisclapp7527]

Thanks History Guy

[@kassimkhankhan3875]

Fascinating knowledge professor

[@nikkitomas7935]

Wow, very interesting story!

[@stevegallagher687]

Love this channel. A wonderful example of the power for good of internet media. Being a history buff this channel is a wealth of knowledge and entertainment. Thanks to all people involved in it’s production. I think this fall I’m going to be stopping at many farm markets while out touring with my motorcycle looking for heirloom apples. Now to find out where are the best places to look. Sounds like a challenge.

[@57WillysCJ]

The other important product made from apples was cider vinegar. Where I grew up the original pioneer of the property is listed in an 1881 newspaper as having an orchard of 5000 trees. It went for .10 per gallon and he had 100 barrels to sell. Sadly 25 years ago they bulldozed the last of the trees.

[@kevdadd1976]

I'm from Winchester va and this is right up my alley, the history guy is best

[@joelmerrill]

My grandfather had a small farm in southern Wisconsin. Like everyone during the great depression, he had a hard time making ends meet. So he had many kinds of crops and animals. He planted an apple orchard next to the house. I wish I could remember what kind they were. He had a wild volunteer tree start growing in one corner of his orchard. He let it grow but the apples weren't very good. So he grafted a branch from one of the other trees onto it. That was a very good apple and he won awards at the county fair. I remember him explaining to me how to graft what I was a kid. Sadly all those trees are long gone.

[@ofands]

Holy crud that was so interesting! I was wondering how you were going to do 10 minutes on apples but I could have listened to that history for hours! Thank you for your vids! You do excellent work and I really appreciate it! Thank you

[@LonoTheOno]

I do believe that this might be my favorite episode of this program. I have come across "feral" apple trees in Northern Virginia and in Oregon, and been pleasantly surprised at the characters of the fruit. Often ugly as sin due to being untended, if you could find wholesome fruit and didn't mind a little scaring, you could have a real treat. I found a very interesting apple that came from 2 trees at a winery I was at during crush, that the vintner told me had been planted by his wife many years before, and he had no idea what they were. The fruit were smallish, 2-1/2" diameter, nearly spherical purple-black skinned, and yellowish inside, and little or no papering in the dimples, that was superbly cider-like in sharp sweetness, with pineapple and cherry overtones, solid but juicy. I went home with nearly as many pounds of those apples as I did gallons of Pinot Noir and zinfandel, and counted it as a real bonus. They kept well, and were equally as good in a pie as eaten out-of-hand. The winery was later donated to OSU, and I don't know what ever became of those incredible apples.

[@quillmaurer6563]

Living in Colorado (Denver area), I find a lot of apple trees growing in various places - people's yards, road medians, parking lots, sometimes the middle of a field that seems to be entirely natural. My guess is that some of these are intended as decorative cultivars but still produce some fruit, some are grown from seeds spread naturally, and some are past or present commercial cultivars that were planted as part of a long-forgotten orchard. There is a huge variety, especially as many I suspect are grown from seeds and thus aren't even any known cultivar but just something completely unique. Many are pretty small and usually not symmetric, but still very tasty. I'm not an expert on different types, but I've learned of the trees around town which produce what sort of apples, which trees make good apples for eating, which are good for baking, and so on. It amazes me that most people, including those with these trees in their yards, don't like to eat them, some seem as though the idea of eating them never even crossed their mind. I write this in September, which should be harvest season, but this year there aren't many due to a late May snow storm. Last year was very bountiful though.

[@JacindaH]

I live in Washington and we purchased an old bit of property in the mountains with some of the best apples I've ever tried. Small, crisp sweet and hearty. I'm on a mission to figure out this tree before the bears finish it off. There are thousands of apple tree's here and I swear each one is so different. Now that makes sense. Thank you. This was great.

[@rosameryrojas-delcerro1059]

There is an apple orchard in Colorado Montezumas Orchard, that collects and grows oddball/antique/vintage varieties from peoples yards or old orchards etc all over the country. You may want to look them up.

[@nikburton9264]

Crab apples were used with other fruit to make jams and jellies, too. Because apple's are so high in natural pectin, that even the sourest of them can be used with other fruits. That's why you see old jam recipes like crabapple-plum, etc. Apple wood is great for barbequeing, and for smoking pork, so if a wild apple tree came up they were usually allowed to grow unless the location was bad. The Starks grubbed out the original golden delicious numerous times before giving up and letting it grow. The only difference be tween a crabapple and an apple is the size of the fruit. Some crabapple trees produce fruit that is sweet as spun honey, but there are a few bigger apples that are pretty sour.

[@RODWALLBANGER]

Excellent video. Thank you