Last month I posted my startling discovery (startling to me, anyway) that cooking apples are virtually unknown in the States. To find out why this might be, I emailed Bill Spencer who runs Windrose Farm in California. Certified Organic and becoming Biodynamic, it’s one place that does grow them. Could it be that Bramleys are not to American tastes?
Bill replied, “The short answer is that we know of over five or six thousand varieties of apple that once grew in the US and now the ‘corporate Industrial Agricultural System’ that is pervading the planet sells fewer and fewer, maybe six or eight varieties.”
Bramleys, he says, do very well there and are, indeed, greatly sought after, but like most ‘heirloom’ varieties they don’t fit the ‘corporate’ needs, not being uniform or ready all at once and having different management needs from all the commercial apples.
Sadly, we can’t hold our heads any higher in Britain, even if we have preserved our national taste for ‘cookers’.
...Landscape Juice Network
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