Archive for March 7, 2010
Heirloom Apple Conservation
Heirloom Apple Conservation
National Effort Launched to Recover and Utilize Endangered Heirloom Apples
The Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) alliance is launching a Forgotten Fruits initiative to return America’s most endangered heirloom apples to orchards, backyards, farmers’ markets, restaurants, home kitchens and cider houses. RAFT has christened the year 2010 as the “Year of the Heirloom Apple” to engage food communities in restoring 90 heirloom apple varieties to each region of the country and to simultaneously renew culinary traditions associated with American apple culture.
Over the next month RAFT is launching this initiative in Appalachia – the richest region for heirloom apples on the continent – with events in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. The launch includes the internet release of its Forgotten Fruits Manifesto and Manual. This publication builds upon the Collective wisdom and work of more than a dozen of America’s elderly heirloom apple experts – a team nicknamed the “Buena Vista Social Club of Forgotten Fruits.”
