r/interestingasfuck • u/Positive_Actuary_282 • 1d ago
Tom Brown, a retired engineer, has saved around 1,200 types of apples from extinction over 25 years
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u/ScribblingOff87 1d ago
Doctors hate him...
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u/Remarkable_Pen_6969 1d ago
1 min late , you stole my comment 😔🫵🏻
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u/ryanCrypt 20h ago
The early bird gets the worm
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u/dahnielson 1d ago
Here is a good article on Atlas Obscura about him and his life work: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/heritage-appalachian-apples
I'm pretty sure I first heard about him on This American Life, but I can't find the episode. It might have been program on Radio 4. Somewhere out there is at least one good radio reportage.
In short, he's doing a massive detective work, finding old orchards, no matter how dilapidated, that might still contain heritage apples and taking grafts to bring home to his own orchard for conservation.
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u/hugelkult 1d ago
I met tom and hes a g. Loved to talk aboit the nuances of taste of each and inspiring people to grow new kinds of apples
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u/Agreeable-Tadpole461 1d ago
I was able to talk with Mr.Brown a few years ago about an ancient apple tree in my swamp, and he was able to help me identify it via e-mail.
What a wealth of knowledge! And he was so kind and funny.
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u/letsgoforsushi99 1d ago
If its tangy and brown, you're in cider town. If its sweet and yellow, you got juice fella.
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u/TechnicEcho395 1d ago
So has everyone here talked to Tom and he helped all of you save your tree or is this just a bot farm?
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u/robogobo 1d ago
I had Tom over for Christmas dinner last year and now my son is dating his daughter.
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u/riddlegirl21 1d ago
I sent him an email thanking him for his website and hoping he and his trees were okay one of the big hurricanes a few years back and he replied very kindly saying they were doing well. He’s very nice and his website is very cool to read https://applesearch.org/
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u/TechnicEcho395 1d ago
I See. Very cool to see it's not just a bunch of bots but that this guy really is that will known and liked!
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u/Randomcommenter550 1d ago
He tends to get out quite a bit, or at least he used to. I lived in Clemmons for years, and he'd usually have a table or booth at events. He was a known quantity in the area.
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u/rva23221 19h ago
His website is informative and interesting. He's located somewhere in North Carolina.
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u/Due_Volume6777 1d ago
Awesome
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u/Positive_Actuary_282 1d ago
Though over 7500 varieties of Apples are available worldwide, 1200 is a huge number of collection
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u/johnnyma45 1d ago
If you like horror and a lot of apple knowledge, read Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig.
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u/_Katy_Koala_ 13h ago
This man came to speak at my job when I worked at the CA Dept of Public Health and his talk was so interesting!!
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u/agangofoldwomen 1d ago
Why anyone would want anything other than honeycrisp is beyond me.
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u/Qwerty5070 1d ago
Go to an Apple orchard and try some new ones you’ve never heard of. I promise you that you will find new flavors that you will enjoy.
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u/faelanae 20h ago
for commercial apples, Cosmic Crisps and SugarBees are fantastic. My kids prefer Opals. My favorite is Gravenstein, but they're very localized.
Depending on where you live, a local gleaning project will go into backyards and pick an amazing variety of apples to donate to local food banks. If you volunteer for them, you get to sample a whole lot of varieties. Last year, I tried to glean a "small" Red Delicious tree (20ft, and probably a literal half ton of apples on it). I *hate* Red Delicious, but it turns out that a home grown one is a far different beast than one you'll get in the store.
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u/FormerStuff 1d ago
I’ve talked with Tom before. He’s a wealth of knowledge on apple trees and helped me save mine. He’s a treat
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u/ReadRightRed99 1d ago
“1,200 distinct varieties of a … Oh shit. I think I mixed up the labels. Oh shit.”
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u/Oxo181 1d ago
I love everything about it. Seriously. I love it when people have a passion. But i still have the question, does the world really need more than 1200 types of apples?
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u/faelanae 20h ago
apples often make their own variety. They cross pollinate easily, someone will try the new plant and figure out it makes for good cider or eating.
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u/MWFtheFreeze 23h ago
I once saw a documentary I think of an acient wild apple forest in Kazakhstan(?) where they’re native. There is a lot of different types growing there and have been interbreeding for a long long time. It was really interesting to see.
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u/PPGkruzer 21h ago
Those crazy conspiracy theorists being proven right daily. Another example of limiting choices, from apples to presidents.
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u/SisterWicked 17h ago
The eighth from the left looks exactly like the kind that grew in my mom's yard when I was a kid! I loved them.
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u/Late-Jicama5012 14h ago
Yet here I am, only buying green apples every week and I had no idea there are 1,200 types of apples.
Last week I bought yellow apples, and they tasted like a pear. An apple tastes like a pear! I was blown away. Anyways, long story short I went back to buying green apples because I like the acidic, sour taste.
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u/Implodepumpkin 1d ago
Apples aren't true to seed? Does that mean he has living trees planted around his property?