Did you know that there are more than 10,000 varieties of apples in the world? There have been more than 14,000 commercially available varieties only in the US by the start of the 1900s, but this number has dropped to only 100 in modern days.
When chemical engineer, Tom Brown learned about this, he decided it was time to rescue what was left of the varieties gone extinct. After taking on this complicated mission, Brown’s friends started calling him the „Apple Hunter” and he started going on exploring trips to the Appalachian mountains to look for the ancient varieties. So far he managed to locate more than 1,200 and created clones to take the heritage further.
Among his most important discoveries is the Junaluska apple, which was a variety found in many Cherokee Indian communities living in the Smoky Mountains in the 19th century.
With in-depth research ha managed to locate a rural orchard where he found an old Junaluska tree.
As he started digging deeper he discovered more and more varieties and the reasons they went extinct and now made it his life mission to try and bring back to life many of the lost apple varieties of the US.
