Last year around this time I was looking for fruit tree scion wood, and my search led me to the website of Tom Brown in North Carolina in the US. Even though Tom was willing to cooperate, we quickly discovered the Netherlands doesn’t allow the import of apple tree scion wood from the US without lots of red tape, so the discussion ended.
So much of Tom speaks to what it means to collect and share heirloom and heritage varieties. Tom not only has a very impressive collection of heritage apples, mostly from the US south, but he’s done everything possible to collect stories and other documentation to go along with them. The roots of Tom’s interest in his apple collection lie in his childhood and passions as a young man.
Not only has the world lost so many heritage plant varieties over the years, but we’ve lost the passions that go along with growing, documenting and hunting for them.
Tom recently rewrote and reposted the story of how found the Junaluska apple, and sent me a link. Note too the link on the bottom of the page that leads to the various descriptions of the apple he found. Many of us grow the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans in our garden each year, and now thanks to Tom a Cherokee apple from that time is also available.
If you live in the US and are looking for an apple tree to grow, consider buying this or others from Tom via his website.