Heritage apples: preserving our mountain traditions: Tom Brown, our modern Johnny Appleseed, shares his search for rare fruit

New Life Journal, Oct-Nov, 2002 by Tom Brown

Three years ago, I became interested in searching for heritage apples. These are varieties which were known 100 years ago, but now have been "lost." They were apples with wonderful names (Night Dropper, Bug Horn, Bumble Bee Sweetning), apples with unique properties (Vance for jelly and Yellow Buff for drying), and many with long histories of production (Sumner Cheese and Kaighn). This effort is a race against time, as the old trees are being cut down and the older people who know the apple names and uses are passing away. Once an apple variety is found, cuttings for grafting are offered to many people who sell heritage apple trees as well as preservation orchards, thus saving them from extinction.

The apple I most wanted to find was the Junaluska, the personal apple tree of the famous Cherokee Chief Junaluska. Many years ago, the government wanted to buy land from the Cherokee. There was a reluctance to sell because the land contained the Chief's favorite apple tree. Eventually, $50 extra was paid because of the apple tree. Luckily an early southern orchardist, Silas McDowell, lived in the same era in Macon County, NC. He sold Junaluska apple trees until 1859 (hopefully, they were grafts from the original tree). I decided to go to Macon County to look for the Junaluska, even though it had been over 140 years since it had been sold in the area. I talked to a man at a country store who told me about a few apples and said I should go see George Crawford. George was a spry 80 year old, full of energy and with many stories of the area. On my next trip to Macon County, he took me to several local homes. Our second stop was at the home of a delightful 93 year old woman who lived on top of a mountain. She had two apple trees called the John Berry Keeper, (from the old John Berry, home-place). As soon as they described the apple (it was then April), I knew that it sounded like the Junaluska. When I was able to get apples, I found that they fit the description of the Junaluska perfectly. Also, I was able to find three people from Haywood County and one from Jackson County who remembered seeing a Junaluska and were able to identify it. I grafted three Junaluska apple trees which will be planted this fall at the Chief Junaluska Grave Site and Memorial near Robbinsville, NC.

There were no native North American apples except a few varieties of crabapple. The early settlers brought with them several hundred varieties from Europe. Later, the government brought in additional promising varieties. One of these was the Lieby, which was imported from Russia in 1870.

On one of my adventures, I met a man from Wilkes County who told me about remembering a Lieby apple. This started a two-year search that ended by my finding the Lieby apple in Iredell County, NC It is crisp with a subtle spicy taste and is slightly dry. The key to finding the old varieties, I've found, is to talk to as many elderly people as humanly possible.

Apple trees are cross-pollinated, and any that grow from seed are different from their parents. Even though grafting is all ancient art, many were grown from seed until early in the last century. Seed-growing caused an explosion in the number of apple varieties. The best of these were grown locally and some were carried by nurseries. There were well over 10,000 varieties in our country. Some of these new "seedling" apples had interesting names, such as the Stump The World apple sold by a Tennessee nursery. I happened to look in the index of a book about apples. I commented to the man I was with, "This has to be the strangest apple name ever, Stump The World." He replied that people had mentioned the apple in the neighboring county of Avery. The next weekend my wife and I were just across the mountain (Roan Mountain) at a country store. We were looking for the Hall apple. I asked an older man at the store if he knew the location of a Hall apple and the Stump The World. He said no. I was standing right beside the middle-age lady clerk. She replied, "Yes, I know about the Stump The World apple, someone brought one to the store two days ago." Sure enough, three miles up the road was an apple tree with big beautiful yellow apples, the rare Stump The World.

Years ago, apples had many different uses as compared to today. They were used for drying, baking, stewing, apple dumplings, cider, vinegar, jelly, preserves, brandy, fresh eating, livestock feed, etc. Many of our English ancestors used apples extensively to make their favorite drink, hard apple cider. Many of the old apples are great cooking apples or have special uses. For example, some apples are best for drying, storing, or making apple butter. One of the ones good for drying is the October apple. It was found in Alexander County, NC. It is a deep beautiful red color, having a dense yellow flesh and is great for drying and general cooking. In the same area, I found a Custard apple, perfect for open-faced apple pies with its spicy taste, holding its shape during cooking.