CONSERVATION

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HARRISON CIDER APPLES: From the Brink of Extinction to Cidermakers’ Revelation Gary Paul Nabhan with Ben Watson, Tom Burford, Charlotte and Chuck Shelton and Diane Flynt IT HAD BEEN thought to have gone extinct, which unsettled heirloom apple experts for years, given the accolades it received in its mid-Atlantic homeland during the nineteenth century: “New Jersey is the most celebrated cider-making district in America, and this apple...has long enjoyed the highest reputation as a cider fruit, “wrote Downing in 1846 . “Ten bushels make a barrel of cider. The tree grows thriftily and bears very large crops.” For making a single variety hard cider, the Harrison commanded the highest price of any apple coming into the New York market, but when its juices were blended with juices from the Graniwinkle, the Harrison produced the most popular fine cider made in the entire country. Then it disappeared... but believing in miracles and loving historic sleuthing, the Dean of American apples, Tom Burford, kept his ears open. In 1976, 44
Paul Gidez sensed he found a surviving Harrison in Essex County, New Jersey, where it had been described decades before, and later reported it to Tom. At last, in 1989, Tom was taken to meet an elderly gentleman who had retained a seventy-five year old tree in his derelict orchard near the town of Peramus, New Jersey. After dinner, the elder took Tom out to see the ancient tree, where Tom confirmed what his friend had suspected: the Harrison cider apple was not extinct at all, but just out of commercial cultivation. From that day on, Tom set out to bring Harrison back to the marketplace, and has sunce found other Harrison trees surviving in New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Fortunately, “Professor Apple,” as Tom is called today, is as good as an orchard-keeper’s and cidermaker’s mentor as he is a nurseryman, historian and sleuth. As Stuart Madany of Castle Hill cidery once commented, “Tom can really romance one with the intrigues of apple growing.” Burford has not only done so with the Castle Hill staff, but with the Shelton family of Albemarle Ciderworks and Vintage Virginia Apples, and with the Flynts at Foggy Ridge Cider near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Grafted Harrison apple trees are now being offered by Vintage Virginia Apples, Fedco Trees, Trees of Antiquity , Big Horse Creek Farm, Cummins Nursery, and Northwest Cider Supply. While Diane Flynt, Stuart Madany, and the Sheltons have surely had an inspiring mentor, they have each added their own legitimate contributions to the recovery of Harrison, to other rare heirloom apples, and to the hard cider revival in general. Diane Flynt, like Charlotte Shelton at Abemarle Ciderworks, was an accomplished businesswoman before she took up 45
Page 1: CONSERVATION YOU CAN TASTE Best Pra
Page 4 and 5: FOREWORD by Melissa Kogut, Executiv
Page 6 and 7: PREFACE by Megan Larmer, Manager of
Page 8 and 9: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY by Gary Paul Nabh
Page 10 and 11: documented over the following pages
Page 12 and 13: INTRODUCTION What is Food Biodivers
Page 14 and 15: One Indicator of How Heirloom Food
Page 16 and 17: VEGETABLES, LEGUMES, GRAINS & ROOT
Page 18 and 19: miraculous. Amish deer tongue lettu
Page 20 and 21: WHITE SONORA WHEAT: Adding Heritage
Page 22 and 23: different from growing modern varie
Page 24 and 25: “DATIL” DO IT: Where Pride in A
Page 26 and 27: instructor, Eddie Lambert, that stu
Page 28 and 29: A SPUD UNLIKE THE OTHERS: Ups and D
Page 30 and 31: In 2006, 500 pounds of seed was pur
Page 32 and 33: CAROLINA GOLD RICE: The Low Country
Page 34 and 35: Glenn Roberts farmers who wanted to
Page 36 and 37: A STAY-AT-HOME KIND OF SUCCESS: The
Page 38 and 39: Gordo pays farmers better than comm
Page 40 and 41: FRUITS, NUTS, & BERRIES THE NUMBER
Page 42 and 43: “One reason we are still making a
Page 46 and 47: Chuck and Anne Shelton of Abermarle
Page 48 and 49: HERITAGE AGRI-TOURISM As a Strategy
Page 50 and 51: Some of these guides are in printed
Page 52 and 53: visitor’s center itself has pomeg
Page 54 and 55: LIVESTOCK & POULTRY BREEDS WE NOW L
Page 56 and 57: Heritage LIVESTOCK Recovery Trends
Page 58 and 59: Heritage POULTRY Recovery Trends 19
Page 60 and 61: GRASSFED BISON RECOVERY: Ranching t
Page 62 and 63: manager. “the biggest challenges
Page 64 and 65: 64
Page 66 and 67: THE RETURN OF THE NAVAJO-CHURRO SHE
Page 68 and 69: Churro Sheep Registry, which has be
Page 70 and 71: EMERGING CHALLENGES, OBSTACLES AND
Page 72 and 73: BEST PRACTICES AT THE SAME TIME, th
Page 74 and 75: more cost-effective to subsidize th
Page 76 and 77: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE CONTRIBUTORS to

CONSERVATION

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?