Tree Weaver

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WHO IS THE CRONE?

“Contrary to popular belief a crone is not a postmenopausal or elderly woman who has sagging breasts and has outlived her gifts and purpose. More than at any other time in history, women are redefining what it is to be a woman in the various phases of life. Women at and over fifty are now a gorgeous force to be reckoned with; earning more than ever, more educated than ever, and poised to inherit a vast portion of the world’s wealth, their opinions matter. Intensely.

Today’s Crones (the younger Baby-Boomers) were yesterday’s Hippies and Flower-children. They held a vision of an entirely different world order; one based in peace, equality, and social justice. In their youth they sensed a rightness to living in alignment with Nature and as equals to the men they loved. Many of them made bold experiments in returning to the land before the word ‘sustainability’ ever came into vogue. The Crone is the wise-woman who has crossed the developmental threshold that marks her “a woman unto herself.” The Crone dusts the red dirt of the world from her feet and begins her real soul-centric work. The Crone has grown wise and potent enough to chart an inward course that takes her to the center of the world where she finds her authentic self in total communion with Life. She is then able to bring those gifts back and offer them to those around her.

Yesterday’s Hippies and Flower children are today’s Crones who are poised to bring to fullness and finish the work they began decades ago. Their sheer number, earnings potential, and feminine wisdom is a movement waiting to happen. We are conscious not only of the Feminine Principle, but of the wisdom held en masse by all the bold, beautiful, and savvy girls in The Sixties who have now come of age as crones. It isn’t a moment too soon. Welcome back to a second youth, now rightly understood for the glorious thing it was always meant to be. Edveeje: TreeSisters Goddess of Operations

treesistersofficialblog.wordpress.com
Read more at: http://boundariesarebeautiful.com

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THE CRONE: WISDOM

The old hag at her cauldron is perhaps the most enduring image of the Wise Woman and a remnant of a time when women were the healers of their communities. They were shamans, witches, midwifes, medicine women, and priestesses of the Goddess.

The Crone is a symbol of inherent wisdom that comes from experience. She has lived through love, sorrow, hope, and fear, coming out of it all a wise and confident spirit. Through these experiences she has learned the secrets of life and death and of the mysteries beyond this world. She has tasted death itself and watched those she loved make the journey before her. It is through her mourning that she faces death, grows to understand it, and becomes the gatekeeper between worlds.

The wisdom of the Crone comes only after learning the lessons of non-judgment and compassion. Through these lessons the Crone becomes the balancing scales between light and dark and between life and death. She is selfless, yet she loves herself. She is kind, yet she knows when to be harsh. She is free, she is compassionate, and she is wise. Only the Crone can complete the journey to the Otherworld and birth the Child of Completion.

The Crone is full of power. Her body is no longer fertile, but her mind is sharp and able. She no longer bleeds, keeping her power within her and owning it without shame or fear.

She is often seen as a healer, working in tune with Nature to cure ailments and guide those ready to leave or enter this world. She is the elder priestess of the Goddess; the Grandmother whose words are few yet priceless in their wisdom.

In myth the Crone is often seen as something to be feared. She is a representation of death and its mysteries. Things that are unknown are always feared, thus we work to know the Crone; to understand her wisdom and beckon her to impart the mysteries upon us. We surrender our fear and ignorance to the Crone and let her strike these overpowering influences down as a stalk of wheat with her shining sickle.

As with all aspects of the Goddess the Crone is not only found within the aged. She is in all beings at all times. She can be present in men and women, young and old; though age may very likely come before her lessons are fully realized.

The Crone is a cleansing force that sweeps through the world carrying away those whose time to live is done to make room for new life. She is associated with the element of water and the direction of west – land of the dead. She is the necessary force of destruction like the force of a wave on the shore; ripping away the beach and returning it to the sea from which it came.

She is the reaper, the comforter, the mysterious old woman who possesses the knowledge of all worlds. The next time a thunderstorm passes overhead take a moment to listen to the voice of the Crone. Feel the tears of joy and mourning fall upon your head and take the first steps to understand her mysteries.

https://witchery.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/the-crone-wisdom/
Read more at: http://boundariesarebeautiful.com

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A CRONE’S CREED  

1.) I will be mindful, living in the moment and fully aware of my surroundings. I will not dwell on the past or worry about the future. I will focus on what I am doing while I am doing it. I will attune myself to the world around me, the most powerful source of magic, strength and wisdom. The sky above and the Earth below, the Moon and the trees, all have wisdom to impart.

2.) I will treat others with respect and I will practice compassion. I will try to remember that there is a spark of the Divine in each and every one of us, and that we are all worthy of respect and kindness. Patience and compassion for others at difficult times can have a profoundly healing effect, on others and for ourselves.

3.) I will be good to myself. I will treat my physical metabolism with the reverence it deserves, honouring this singular, magical vessel with the best offerings available, good healthy food, fresh air and clean water, pleasant surroundings and happy activities such as meditation, rambling in the woods, yoga, Tai Chi, ecstatic dancing, singing, chanting and laughing. I will remember that happy and ecstatic experiences have great healing powers and that my body is as much a part of my magical work as my mind is.

4.) I will learn to accept and love myself, and in so doing be healed. We did not choose the families we were born into, and we did nothing whatsoever to deserve any physical and emotional abuse meted out to us as children. No matter what has been said about us, we are good and beautiful spirits, worthy of love and acceptance. I choose the path of healing, and I shall begin that healing by learning to love and accept myself.

5.) I will be good to the planet. The Old Wild Mother is strong and forgiving, but we have treated Her and Her creatures badly and our shabby thoughtless treatment is straining Her ability to heal Herself. She needs our assistance and our love more than ever, and we can help Her much though environmental and animal activism, simplifying and recycling, organic gardening and conservation. We can spend our money carefully and use it to vote “NO” to pollution, pesticides, factory farming, strip mining, excess packaging, and the plundering of the wilderness and Her creatures. We can make a difference, and it is one of the most magical things we can do.

6.) I will try to live cheerfully with my medical condition, to be joyful and to learn any and all of the lessons which my illness may have to teach me.

7.) I will be tolerant of other beliefs and open to other beliefs. In the words of Morgan in The Mists of Avalon, “It is all one”, and all life-affirming paths to the Divine are valid. I will not proselytize; neither will I criticize or judge the religious paths of others. I will be open to other teachers and belief systems, and I will share what little wisdom I have with others if they ask me to do so.

8.) I will remember that a life lived simply is beautiful. I will not worry about possessions, and I will rejoice in the natural beauties around me, the fragrance of flowers, the sound of the wind in the trees, the taste of wild honey, the companionship of my clan and my animal familiars. From time to time I will do magic as the village wise women and healers of old did it: without robes, tools and complex preparations, but with a profound connection to the earth and deep respect for all that moves on it.

9.) I will learn to rest in the arms of the Old Wild Mother and let it all go. I am a part of the glorious eternal dance, the great cosmic cycle of life, death and rebirth, and I have nothing to fear. I will live my life quietly and with great joy, whether that life be short or long.

10.) Finally, I will express myself. From time to time, I will spontaneously break into ecstatic dancing and howling at the moon. Once in a while, I shall feel free to be stubborn, curmudgeonly and downright obscene. If it is required for any reason, I shall also feel free to kick butt.

http://thorns-meadow.com/bos/documents/1594
Read more at: http://boundariesarebeautiful.com

CRONE CALL

“I am the silence of Midnight, and Black velvet skies. I am the shadow of vision that tempers your eyes.

I am the darkness of secrets that draw the veil thin, coldness of winter that shakes on your skin.

I am Grandmother, Weaver, Enchantress and Crone, The Knowledge of Justice that strikes at the bone.

Destruction is mine when its time comes to be; Death to the living, who all come to me.

Mine is the hand of the spinning of fates, Mine is the passage between life’s fragile gates.

I am the giver of magickal sight The slight sliver of waning moonlight.

I am the branch of ageless worn trees. Hear my voice and know of me!

I am the Raven that flies through the woods – black silken wings opened up to the sky! Bearer of closure, competition, and truth – Dreamscapes and Banshee am I!

Mine is the wisdom that comes in the dark. Mine is the dying that calls to your flesh. Mine are the hidden remains of your heart. Mine is the mist that will take your last breath.

Give unto me what is old and outworn, And I will return it with new life reborn.

Give me your sorrows, your sadness, your grief – And in the dark hour, I will give thee relief”

I am the giver of death and rebirth – Mine are the last things, before they are first.

See me in shadows, and in the dark sea. I am the Crone! Hear my voice and know me!”

“Author Unknown
Read more at: http://boundariesarebeautiful.com

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I can’t believe that September is nearly over. Roll on October, a month which will see our Missy Moo turn 13, where the clocks go back, we purchase and carve pumpkins, kick the piles of fallen leaves, we see the night’s draw in and we have to consider the wearing of raincoats and umbrellas. Out comes my soup recipes and knitted jumpers.
Today we have bright sunshine and I shall bathe in her glorious warmth and enjoy a beautiful autumn day.
Print by artist Sarah Bays.

Share your colourful #AutumnLeafWatch photos for a chance to win

Enter our photo competition to win £200 worth of gift cards to spend on new photography kit at Wex Photo Video. The winner and two runner-ups will also receive Membership to a forest site of their choice.

To be in with a chance of winning, head to one of our forests, get snapping and share your autumnal photos using #AutumnLeafWatch on Twitter and Instagram or by posting them directly on to our Facebook page.

We want to see how autumn captivates your senses. Photos can be landscapes, macros, portraits, selfies, wildlife – if it’s autumnal, we want to see it! Check out our autumn pages for inspiration. Please note that we give preference to photos taken at Forestry England sites.

During the competition, a selection of the entries will be shared across our social media channels, and we will select a final shortlist of favourites. The public will have the power to choose which photo they want to win by visiting our Facebook page and ‘liking’ their favourite. The winner will be the photo with the most reactions!

Competition Terms and Conditions:

1. Valid entries are those photos shared on Instagram, on Twitter, or submitted onto the Forestry England Facebook page, including the hashtag #AutumnLeafWatch – posted after 13th September 2021.
2. The winner will receive £200 worth of gift cards for Wex Photo Video and a Forestry England Membership of their choice. Two runners up will receive Forestry England Membership also. 
3. There is no cash alternative to the prizes stated, and the prizes are not transferable. The prizes cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions. 
4. The closing time and date for the competition is midnight 27 October 2021.
5. By posting any images as entries to the competition, you are agreeing that the photo can be used by Forestry England as part of its future autumn promotion on national and local digital channels, and also on the Friends of Westonbirt digital channels.
6. During the competition, a selection of the entries will be shared across our social media channels. Forestry England will then pick their ten favourite images on or around 29 October 2021. The public will pick the winning photo from 29 October to midday on 5 November on the Forestry England Facebook page. The winning photo will be the one that receives the most ‘reactions’. There will be two runners up. If winners are unable to claim the prize within 72 hours of being contacted following the vote, or if unable to take the prize for whatever reason, the prize will be gifted to the photo with the next highest number of ‘reactions’.
7. Forestry England’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered in to.
8. The competition is open to UK residents, except employees of any party connected with the promotion.
9. Entry implies acceptance into these terms and conditions. The entry instructions form part of the terms and conditions. By entering, you accept to and be bound by the terms and conditions.
10. Forestry England reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value should circumstances outside its control make this necessary.
11. Forestry England reserves the right to cancel, amend, withdraw, terminate or temporarily suspend this promotion in the event of unforeseen circumstances or technical reason outside its control, with no liability to any entrants or third parties but will use all reasonable endeavours to avoid consumer disappointment.

Reference ~ https://www.forestryengland.uk/autumn/photo-competition?utm_campaign=national_newsletter_220921&utm_medium=email&utm_source=national_newsletter

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• The ‘State of the World’s Trees’ report uses data from 500 international experts  
• The report has been published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International
• Researchers assessed the 58,497 species of tree — finding 17,500 to be at risk
• And some 440 tree species are represented only by 50 or fewer individuals

Human activities like agriculture, livestock farming and logging are putting nearly a third of the world’s tree species at risk of extinction, a report has warned. There are more than twice as many threatened trees than at risk birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles combined.

More than 500 experts from 60 institutions collected data over five years for the ‘State of the World’s Trees’ report from Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

The researchers assessed the 58,497 species of tree that grow across the globe — finding that around 17,500 are on the worrying path towards extinction.

These include well-known species such as magnolia, oaks, maple and ebonies.

Hundreds of species are teetering on the brink, the report warned — like the Menai whitebeam, which is represented by only 30 trees in its North Wales home.

One in every five tree species are directly used by humans for applications including food, fuel, horticulture, medicines and timber.

However, over-exploitation and mismanagement is harming many species — and at least 142 have been recorded as recently going extinct.

Another human-driven threat is climate changes, which is altering the habitat ranges of various species — with cloud forest species in Central America at particular risk. Climate change is also exacerbating the threat of invasive species such as ash die back which is expected to kill about 80% of the UK’s ash trees.

At least 180 tree species are being directly threatened by sea level rise and weather extremes, the report noted, including magnolias in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, increasing risks of fire are presenting major threats to various trees in Madagascar and the oak species of the United States. 

More than 440 tree species have fewer than 50 individuals left alive in the wild. One example is Malawi’s Mulanje cedar, which is now represented by all of a few trees.

The highest proportion of threatened trees can be found on islands — including 69 per cent of those growing on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena in the southern Atlantic and 59 per cent of those found on Madagascar.

In Europe, 58 per cent of native trees are threatened with extinction in the wild, with whitebeams and rowan the most at risk — while Brazil has the highest number of threatened tree species.

Dipterocarpaceae species are at risk from palm oil plantations in Borneo, while timber extraction threatens ebony in Madagascar as well as mahogany and rosewood species across the Caribbean and Brazil.

Magnolia and camellia species are threatened by unsustainable collection for commercial uses, while pests and diseases are causing severe decline to ash populations in both the UK and North America.

Meanwhile, oaks — particularly in South and Central America — are being threatened by deforestation.

There were some glimmers of hope in the report, however, which found that 64 per cent of all tree species can be found in at least one protected area and 30 per cent can be found in botanic gardens, seed banks, or other such collections.

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Botanic Gardens Conservation International is calling on governments and experts to take various measures to better protect the world’s tree species.

These include extending protected area coverage for threatened tree species, ensuring all at-risk trees are, where possible, conserved in botanic gardens and seed banks and to increase public and corporate funding for the issue.

In the report, the organisation also urges the expansion of tree planting schemes — with targeted planting of threatened and native species — and increased global collaboration to tackle tree extinction.

‘This report is a wake-up call to everyone around the world that trees need help,’ said Botanic Gardens Conservation International secretary general Paul Smith.

‘Every tree species matters — to the millions of other species that depend on trees, and to people all over the world.

‘For the first time, thanks to the information provided by the state of the world’s trees report, we can pinpoint exactly which tree species need our help.’

This he added, will allow ‘policymakers and conservation experts to deploy the resources and expertise needed to prevent future extinctions.’

The “huge interest” in tree planting schemes to offset corporate or individual emissions is an opportunity to use threatened species rather than more common eucalyptus or spruce, Mr Smith said.

“Ironically, some of those threatened species are actually threatened by tree planting programmes by people planting monoculture exotics,” he added.

‘For the first time, the “State of the World’s Trees” provides a comprehensive breakdown of our world’s trees,’ said the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s species survival commission chairman, Jon Paul Rodriguez.

‘Knowing where they are and why they are threatened is the first step towards acting for their conservation,’ he added.

“Despite the worrying data, I look forward to future state of the world’s trees reports.

‘I hope to learn of the increase in the number of known species and the decline in the proportion facing high extinction risk, due to the success of premeditated, coordinated global conservation action.’

MAP REVEALS THE DEVASTATING RATE OF DEFORESTATION AROUND THE GLOBE

The destruction caused by deforestation, wildfires and storms on our planet have been revealed in unprecedented detail.

High-resolution maps released by Google show how global forests experienced an overall loss of 1.5 million sq km during 2000-2012.

For comparison, that’s a loss of forested land equal in size to the entire state of Alaska.

The maps, created by a team involving Nasa, Google and the University of Maryland researchers, used images from the Landsat satellite.

Each pixel in a Landsat image showing an area about the size of a baseball diamond, providing enough data to zoom in on a local region.

Before this, country-to-country comparisons of forestry data were not possible at this level of accuracy.

‘When you put together datasets that employ different methods and definitions, it’s hard to synthesise,’ said Matthew Hansen at the University of Maryland.

Reference https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/58394467.amp. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/01/nearly-third-worlds-trees-threatened-extinction/amp/

In nature, falling tree leaves are known to be associated with the end of the season, when dying leaves fall to the ground to welcome the upcoming autumn. Some people collect the leaves and dry them, but some people like Solange Nunes use the leaves as a canvas for embroidery ideas.

A Brazilian embroidery artist that goes by the name of “arteoficioatelie” on Instagram has a very specific way of producing her unique art pieces. Since she was young, she always looked for ways to improve her embroidery patterns and once she decided to try out embroidering dry leaves, after many trials and errors, Nunes perfected her colorful art, and she now shares her beautiful embroidery stitches with over 10k people on Instagram.

“My name is Solange Nunes. I live in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I have a degree in Fine Arts and have long chosen embroidery as a form of artistic expression. I come from a family of embroiderers from Madeira Island, Portugal, and I’ve been making embroidery ever since I was a child.

I always looked out for new ways to improve my embroidery, something besides the fabric. And years ago, when I lived on a farm, I used to take walks and bring branches, leaves, seeds home. One time, I decided to do a test with the leaves.”

“It was a challenge. There was no reference and the ‘canvas’ was extremely fragile, meaning it required very delicate support. I researched leaves and did many tests until I got the desired effect, and then, since 2017, I’ve dedicated myself only to embroidery on dry leaves.

It is a job that I do with a lot of passion and I carry that passion with me and into my way of thinking and seeing the world. Through it, I try to bring a little more enchantment into people’s lives, trying to awaken to the beauty and simplicity of life, the beauty that is ephemeral, and the life that is very brief in the eyes of a human.”

Reference https://www.boredpanda.com/embroidery-on-dry-leaves-solange-nunes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

It’s a romantic notion, but pretending they’re like humans could actually harm the cause of conservation by Kathryn Flinn, July 19, 2021

Trees that communicate, care for one another and foster cooperative communities have captured the popular imagination, most notably in Suzanne Simard’s much-praised book Finding the Mother Tree, soon to be a movie, and in other works like James Cameron’s Avatar, Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Overstory.

But many scientists like myself believe these depictions misrepresent ecosystems and harm the cause of conservation.

Do trees really talk? Sure. Plants emit hormones and defense signals. Other plants detect these signals and alter their physiology accordingly. But not all the talk is kind; plants also produce allelochemicals, which poison their neighbours.

Simard and others showed that carbon compounds made by one tree can end up in neighbouring trees via the underground network of mycorrhizae, fungi that live on plant roots and exchange water and nutrients they gather from the soil for sugars plants make. They suggest that donor trees purposely and sacrificially send nourishment to others to help them grow and ensure the health of the community.

How would this work? Like other ecological interactions, cooperation must evolve by natural selection, in which traits increase in frequency because individuals who have them produce more offspring and pass on the traits.

Perhaps the simplest explanation is that the fungus shuttles carbon around to protect its own interests, cultivating multiple hosts to ensure its future supply of food.

Altruism can arise if a recipient is likely to reciprocate, ultimately benefiting the donor. Reciprocity among trees is possible, but many interactions are likely asymmetric, such as between mature trees and tiny seedlings.

Altruistic behavior can also evolve if it benefits relatives, who pass on the donor’s genes. Emerging evidence shows nutrient redistribution via mycorrhizal networks benefits kin more than unrelated plants. The mechanisms by which plants might recognize and respond to their relatives have yet to be fully worked out.

Unfortunately, the explanation most favoured by popularisers, that trees send out resources to strengthen the community, is least likely. This would require natural selection to be countered by group selection—where groups that cooperate win out over groups that do not. When these forces conflict, natural selection almost always wins, because individuals are so much more numerous than groups and turn over much more rapidly.

Interestingly, when mycorrhizae transfer resources from a native grass to an invasive weed, this is interpreted as evidence of parasitism, not cooperation.

Overemphasising cooperation is misleading. The forest floor is a forum of fierce competition. A mature maple tree produces millions of seeds, and on average only one will grow to reach the canopy. The rest will die, with or without help from mum.

Amid this struggle, trees can sometimes facilitate each other’s growth. But this does not mean that a forest functions like one organism. An ecosystem comprises an ever-changing diversity of organisms having an ever-changing variety of interactions, positive and negative.

After the last glaciation, different tree species migrated north at different rates and by different routes. The beech-maple forest, or the oak-hickory forest, did not move as a unit. In fact, trees currently live in combinations that may have no analogue in the past or future.

Anthropomorphism is taboo in science because it deceives us more often than it helps. Trees are not people and forests are not human families or even republics. Suggesting that they are can only lead us to imaginary conclusions.

In interviews, Simard has said that she purposely uses anthropomorphism and culturally weighted words like “mother”—even though the trees in question are male as well as female—so that people can relate to trees better, because “if we can relate to it, then we’re going to care about it more.”

Do trees need to have human values and emotions for us to let them live? The science supporting conservation is compelling enough. New discoveries about the underground world are thrilling enough. The public deserves to hear the true story, without the confusion of personification and stretched metaphor.

These distractions keep us from confronting reality: facilitation may be real, but so is the Darwinian struggle for existence. We are moral creatures in an amoral world. Nature does not share our values, and mercifully, we may choose not to emulate all of nature’s ways.

Between treating plants as objects or as humans, I suggest a third way: let’s seek to understand plants on their own terms. Plants are fundamentally unlike us: mute, rooted and inscrutable. We need to meet the challenge of cultivating respect for organisms that are different from us—in their separate and complex bodies, in their sophisticated interactions, in their unfathomable lives.

Kathryn Flinn is a plant ecologist and Associate Professor of Biology at Baldwin Wallace University near Cleveland, with a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. For more about her, please see https://kathrynflinn.wordpress.com/.

One apple enthusiast in North Carolina has dedicated himself to rescuing heritage apples, rescuing over 1,000 types from extinction.

Tom Brown is a 79-year-old retired engineer who owns an apple orchard in Clemmons, North Carolina. This Appalachian homesteader has found a second calling in his efforts to save as many apples from extinction as possible.

It all started back in 1998, when Brown took a trip to the farmer’s market that would change his life. “There was a little stand with a bunch of strange-looking apples laid out in baskets,” he says. At the stand, there were apples the likes of which Brown had never seen.

The apples had bright green, pink, black-purple, and yellow flesh, and they came in all shapes and sizes. Upon tasting the many types, Brown found that their flavours were as diverse as their appearances. From the Newtown Pippin to the Grimes Golden to the Arkansas Black, the apples opened up a whole new world. Unfamiliar names such as Black Winesap, Candy Stripe, Royal Lemon, Rabun Bald, Yellow Bellflower, and Night Dropper pair with tales that seem plucked from pomological lore.

Take the Junaluska apple. Legend has it the variety was standardized by Cherokee Indians in the Smoky Mountains more than two centuries ago and named after its greatest patron, an early-19th-century chief. Old-time orchardists say the apple was once a Southern favourite, but disappeared around 1900.

Brown tasted Jonathans that had rosé wine-colored flesh. Rusty Coats were soft like pears and sweet like honey. The mammoth Twenty Ounce was crisp with a tart, peachy finish. Semi-firm Etter’s Gold brought peony bouquets and grape flavors. Grimes Golden were sweet with a hint of nutmeg and white pepper.

Brown began talking to the vendor, learning that the apples he was selling were standardised in the 18th and 19th centuries, and had disappeared from the market by 1950. The vendor, orchardist Maurie Marshall, had obtained most of his old varieties personally from mountain homesteaders and apple-hunting expeditions.

Marshall also shared that hundreds of lost apples could be discovered throughout the old orchards of Appalachia through apple-hunting, a fact that Brown took to heart. “That part stayed with me,” says Brown. “I kept thinking: ‘How neat would it be to find an apple nobody’s tasted in 50 or 100 years?'”

The idea of hundreds of delicious fruit disappearing from existence seemed unfathomable to Brown, and he began researching Appalachia’s heritage apple varieties. He found that American orchards were growing about 14,000 different apple varieties at the start of the 20th century, mostly in Appalachia.

Commercial orchards in the U.S. grew about 14,000 unique apple varieties in 1905, and most of them could be found in Appalachia, says William Kerrigan, author of Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard and a professor of American history at Muskingum University.

There were no native North American apples except a few varieties of crabapple. The early settlers brought with them several hundred varieties from Europe. Later, the government brought in additional promising varieties. One of these was the Lieby, which was imported from Russia in 1870.

On one of my adventures, I met a man from Wilkes County who told me about remembering a Lieby apple. This started a two-year search that ended by my finding the Lieby apple in Iredell County, NC It is crisp with a subtle spicy taste and is slightly dry. The key to finding the old varieties, I’ve found, is to talk to as many elderly people as humanly possible.

Historically the abundance of apples was rooted in the colonists’ beverage preferences. Fermented beverages were popular at the time, since water wasn’t always safe to drink. Apple orchards were easier to maintain than barley fields for beer, so cider became the preferred alcoholic drink. Because of this, apple orchards were planted in abundance throughout the East Coast during the 18th century, supplying the colonists with homegrown apple cider.

Appalachia offered ideal growing conditions, from the hot summers to the rich soil. Because of this, the Shenandoah Valley was the top apple growing region by the early 1800s, and apple growers were experimenting with abandon. Growers did things like cross tannin-rich indigenous crabapples with Old World cider staples. This led to a wide variety of types of apples, such as the Taliaferro, which Thomas Jefferson declared the greatest cider apple in the world.

“The goal was to be able to pick fresh apples from June to November, and have a diverse supply of fruit throughout the year,” says Brown. Thick-skinned, late-ripening varieties provided wintertime pomaceous treats. Others were tweaked for applications such as frying, baking, dehydrating, making vinegar, and finishing livestock.

One of the ones good for drying is the October apple. It was found in Alexander County, NC. It is a deep beautiful red colour, having a dense yellow flesh and is great for drying and general cooking. In the same area, I found a Custard apple, perfect for open-faced apple pies with its spicy taste, holding its shape during cooking.

I have been enriched by the wonderful stories of the many elderly people I’ve talked with about apples. They’ve told me how to make water apple dumplings, how to preserve apples using sulfur and hot coals, the 1923 great flood, walking over a mountain in the snow to go to school, the shooting at the court house, delivering apples to a distant city with a wagon and a team of mules, etc. Along with the many unique, beautiful and delicious varieties of apples, these wonderful stories are also rapidly slipping away.

Apples were the garden’s crown jewels, says Appalachian Food Summit co-founder and renowned chef, Travis Milton. People took pride in having something unique to brag about to their neighbours.

However, due to urban migration, factory tampering, and food corporations, the Appalachian tradition of heritage apples was destroyed throughout the 1900s. Small orchards eventually went out of business, as conglomerates were only interested in apple varieties that matured quickly and withstood long-distance shipping. By the end of the 20th century, there were less than 100 apple varieties being produced by commercial orchards, and 11,000 heirloom apples had gone extinct.

“It upset me to learn about that,” says Brown. “These were foods that people had once cared about deeply, that’d been central to their lives. It felt wrong to just let them die.”

Brown was deeply upset to learn about the many lost apple varieties, and this feeling spurred him into action. Brown was in search of a retirement hobby, and his experience as an engineer would give him the organisation necessary for such a task. He had inadvertently discovered a new passion in his mid-70’s, and he was ready to dive in.

Marshall connected Tom Brown with a group of heritage orchardists, who taught him about identifying, grafting, and maintaining heritage apple trees. He learned about the lost apple varieties, making lists of their former growing locations and distinguishing characteristics.

Brown started by visiting former popular growing locations, along with placing ads in newspapers to glean information about old apple trees. “When I explain what I’m doing, most people are really receptive,” said Brown. However, many of the people who contacted him didn’t offer any concrete information, instead telling childhood stories about “old man such-and-such had a tree with 20 different types of apples grafted onto it.”

However, through detective work, persistence, and more than a few wild goose chases, Brown began to track down growing locations of heirloom varieties like the Royal Lemon, Neverfail, Candy Stripe, and Black Winesap. He drives over 30,000 miles a year to identify and catalogue heritage species, and his heritage orchard in North Carolina is filled with clones of rediscovered heritage varieties.

“Saving an apple from the brink of extinction is a miraculous feeling,” says Brown. “It’s incredibly rewarding–and incredibly addictive!”

This apple hunter has found his “true life’s work,” and is racing against time to save as many apple varieties as he can. Brown has saved about 1,200 and hopes to recover another 100 varieties or more in his lifetime, but says that even just one more would be rewarding enough.

Today Brown’s orchard is filled with clones of trees recovered in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. He divides time between apple-hunting, tending trees, donating scionwood to nonprofit heritage orchards, and selling about 1,000 saplings annually.

Brown’s work has been commended by conservationists and culinary professionals alike. Chefs like Travis Milton are stoked to have hundreds of new flavours to experiment with. Craft cidermakers say reintroduced heirlooms are inspiring a cider renaissance.

“Tom has helped redefine what’s possible,” says Foggy Ridge Cider owner, Diane Flynt, who won a James Beard Foundation award in 2018. She says heirlooms such as Hewes Virginia Crab and Arkansas Black are for Appalachia what noble grape varieties like Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon are for Bordeaux.

Brown is thrilled the apples are being put to good use. But he’s quick to note that many still need saving. And they’re getting harder to find.

“It takes me probably 20-30 times more work and a lot more driving to locate one new tree,” says Brown.

Meanwhile, his ‘cherished recipe’ was Big Mama’s Apple Cake also featured on The Very Vera Show.

“Big Mama, Mamie Warrington Everett, was my wife’s grandmother and she lived near Yazoo, Mississippi,” Brown said, noting that the honorific “Big Mama” referred to her as the family leader. The cake is made of a delectable combination of tart apples, vanilla, allspice, cinnamon, and studded with walnuts or pecans and moist, chewy bliss.

“Like any good recipe, we’re sure its connection to his family’s roots makes it all the sweeter.” https://www.veryvera.com/recipes/recipe/big-mamas-apple-cake/

Do you know of an old apple variety? To help Tom Brown in his search for rare and “extinct” apple varieties, or to find out more, see his website, http://www.applesearch.org, or call him at 336-766-5842. Tom Brown is retired and lives in Clemmons, NC. He is also the brother-in-law of New Life Journals editor and publisher.

Reference https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/heritage-appalachian-apples.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Kseniia Boko (actual surname Bobchenko, b. 1990) is a traditional artist living and working in Ukraine. She works primarily in oil paints and creates fantastic pieces featuring mysterious female portraits with fragments of the natural world. She wants to show a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. 

Kseniia graduated at Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (in 2013) and worked as an architect before serendipitously falling into the art world. Today she works as a full-time artist. 

Reference https://www.kseniiaboko.com/