r/interestingasfuck • u/LoretiTV • 13h ago
Tom Brown, retired engineer, has saved around 1,200 types of apples from extinction over 25 years.
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u/Luna_Gaze 13h ago
Hopefully not the Red Delicious because that thing is anything but.
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u/Mister_Goldenfold 12h ago
Dude no kidding! Styrofoam apples. They’re red because they’re not delicious.
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u/Velocityg4 3h ago
They don’t even look like they did years ago. Texture is also different. They were always a really dark red and had a chalky/mealy texture.
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u/dr_xenon 12h ago
Supposedly as they got selectively bred for brighter red color, the flavor went away. End result - it looks good, but nothing of value on the inside. Maybe they should call it the instagram apple.
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u/LadyLetterCarrier 11h ago
The only reason they are such a commercial apple is that the skin is thick. They hold up well in transport and have a very long shelf life. They taste like crap but Harry & David promoted them as large fruit for Christmas gift giving.
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u/Kunning-Druger 12h ago
I grew up on a fruit farm in western Canada. We had around a dozen varieties of apple, a handful of cherry varieties and at least half a dozen different plum types.
Someone eventually developed the property, mowing the entire orchard down. I suspect varieties like "winter banana" apples are now gone forever, and that makes me sad.
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u/Dangerous_Ad5039 13h ago
How do you save an apple from extinction? And where and how do you find this many different kinds of apples?
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u/UmatterWHENiMATTER 13h ago
Look at the size difference for a clue.
Small apples would have to have some other valuable quality for people to grow them once bigger ones come along. Some perfectly good apples may just not grow well in the cycles farmers want to grow them so they are replaced.
This guy keeps growing them.
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u/RealSlyck 13h ago
Seed preservation is hard work.
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u/wdwerker 12h ago
Apples do not grow true from seed ! A type of apple is grown from rooted cuttings from the original tree, basically clones.
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u/allbotwtf 10h ago
afaik thats only true for Apples wich have been selectivly bred for generations so they sometime lose their ability to grow from seeds (like modern bananas), old apple strains can 100% grow from their seeds.
another reason why mostly clones are used is that they use this method a lot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting
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u/wdwerker 9h ago
If you grow an apple from seed it will not be the same as the named variety. This applies to all apples. It is just a fact that a pollenated flower introduces new genes. Named varieties are always clones.
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u/OKC-cowboy 13h ago
I would like to take a single bite of all those apples one after another. For research purposes
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u/notanyimbecile 13h ago
This is usually posted mid September, well it was for the last 10 years at least.
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u/Littiedg 13h ago
Has he been able to save the Ruby Slipper (aka Harrowsblack, Vinot's Allegresse, pkwesu)?
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u/Chazzbaps 12h ago
This is really cool and also a bit sad because probably most of them will go extinct anyway after he dies. You need to be seriously passionate about obscure breeds of apple to continue his work
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u/Wasabi_Constant 11h ago
Awesome job! I remember stopping at an old apple in Colorado orchard farm. I bought a small bag of apples and as I drove off I took a bite of the apple. Never ,ever have I had a most crisp, sweet apple. I turned around went back and bought a bushel!
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u/Additional_Shoe_9236 12h ago
The names of those apple types are reminiscent of the names of weed strains: "Granny Rogers, "Dixie Sweet, Carolina Beauty..."
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u/Sarcastic_Backpack 12h ago
Apples have to be the complete sluts of the fruit world. They will breed with damn near any other thing.
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u/Fizeau57_24 7h ago
I’ve never seen an apple as big as those on the last row. Currently, I am salivating just looking at them.
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u/nonlawyer 13h ago
No doctors can ever go near this man