1200 lost varieties of apples.

The number of commercially available apple varieties in the United States plummeted from 14,000 in 1905 to a measly 100 in less than a century… and only 11 of those varieties are commonly found in grocery stores.

That may seem like plenty to choose from, but when retired chemical engineer Tom Brown learned that an estimated 11,000 American varieties had gone extinct, he made it his life’s mission to save whatever was left of our country’s rich apple heritage.

Nicknamed the “Apple Hunter” by friends, he has scoured countless hilltops and valleys along the Appalachian mountain range, from Georgia to Pennsylvania, looking for “lost” heirloom varieties.

A modern “Johnny Appleseed,” he’s located and reintroduced 1200 so far, most of which haven’t been sold commercially for over a century, and many of which he cloned from the last known tree of its kind.

One of Brown’s most prized apples is the Junaluska apple.

“Legend has it the variety was standardized by Cherokee Indians in the Smoky Mountains more than two centuries ago and named after its greatest patron, an early-19th-century chief,” Atlas Obscura reports.

Once a Southern favorite, it disappeared around 1900. Detective work helped him locate the rural orchard, which closed in 1859.

Brown enlisted the help of a local hobby-orchardist and mailman, who spent days knocking door-to-door looking for clues. Finally, an elderly woman led them to a single, gnarled Junaluska tree in the ruins of a old mountain orchard since swallowed by forest.

As Brown discovered more and more lost apple varieties, he began to research where they all came from and why they had disappeared.

He learned the vast number of varieties was rooted in the early colonists’ taste for fermented beverages.

“Water wasn’t always safe to drink, and episodes of sickness from contaminated water gave that substance a questionable reputation,” explains William Kerrigan, author of Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard.

Neat guy to know folks ...  



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