Thursday, December 8, 2011

Wild apples from the Father of Apples to the Big Apple

An alert reader notes the following account of a project that is planting wild apples from Khazakhstan in New York City.

Apples are from Kazakhstan, where the name of the capital city, Almaty, comes from an older name meaning "Father of Apples."

The New York Times's Matt Flegenheimer details a tree planting on Randall's Island, in the East River across from 100 to 125 St.

The project reminds me just a little of the Boston Tree Party around here.
Hooray for civic fruit!

3 comments:

  1. Hi
    From Winterport, ME
    I don't have a lot of room here, but squeeze in apple trees in every 'nook and cranny'. 1/2 of the 100 trees are on state land or encroach on my neighbor. Thought I'd comment on the Belle de Boskoop - from what I've read this is mainly a culinary apple but does become better eating after storage. Had my first 'State Fair' and 'Wynooche Early' apples this past couple years and they have become my favorite early eating apples. As good as any late apple. 'Wealthy' is also one of my favorites! Want grow the 'Martha Crabapple'. Haven't found it except for scions at Spearheart, so will go that route unless somebody knows where to buy a tree?
    Have you seen the recent article called 'Crunch' in the 'New Yorker' (Nov 21, 2011) about apples.

    Great Blog! Thanks!
    Brian

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  2. Brian, thanks for your kind words!

    The author of Crunch, John Seabrook, has comments on this blog; I review it here.

    I also describe some (but not all) of the apples you mention. There are a variety of takes on Belle de Boskoop in the comments.

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  3. I didn't realise how many apple varieties there were, thanks for opening my eyes a little Brian.

    ReplyDelete

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