Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Mother Earth Gardener

    Apples An American Classic

    Nov 30, 2018 7 minutes
    By Rebecca Martin

    AMERICANS CONSUME a lot of apples — an average of 45 pounds of the fresh and processed fruit per person per year in the United States — so you’d think we know how the fruit should taste. The flavor of ‘Red Delicious,’ ‘McIntosh,’ ‘Gala,’ and other supermarket apples is often described the same way, as “sweet” and “mild.” Therein lays the problem. Beneath their perfect peels, these fruits are uniform, uninteresting, and even bland.

    The flavor profiles of heirloom apples, though, stand in stark epicurean contrast. “A lot of our cultivars have pineapple and citrus notes, and one has a nutmeg flavor,” says Zeke Goodband, orchardist for the ScottFarm Orchard in southern Vermont, where 40 acres of trees are in production — more than 3,000 trees. “If we lined up all the trees,” Goodband says, “we’d have 20 miles of rows in our orchard.” Most rows include at least three cultivars, and, in total, the orchard holds more than 125 different apple cultivars. Most are of American provenance and date from the 19th and 20th centuries, but a number of older French and English trees

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Mother Earth Gardener

    Mother Earth Gardener5 min read
    SWEET (and Simple) Potatoes
    MORE TIMES THAN I’D LIKE to admit, a sweet potato has remained hidden in my vegetable cupboard long enough to begin sprouting. For years, I’d either cook it before it spoiled or I’d toss it into the compost pile. After I’d started a flock of chickens
    Mother Earth Gardener6 min readChemistry
    Homemade Organic Fertilizers
    VEGETABLE GROWERS traditionally bring large amounts of nutritive materials onto their land to improve soil and plant function. Although adding volumes of compost and mulch is still the basis of fertilizing vegetables, these are often supplemented by
    Mother Earth Gardener9 min read
    Transform Your Driveway Into a Vegetable Garden
    I WAS SMITTEN with my driveway last summer. For several weeks, it produced tasty tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, basil, bush green beans, and cucumbers. Throw in some lettuce, Swiss chard, and beets, and I ended up with much more than a

    Related Books & Audiobooks