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Tom Burford

Apples of North America: Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks Hardcover – September 24, 2013

by Tom Burford (Author)

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American Horticulture Society Award Winner

The apple is one of the most iconic fruits, traditionally picked on cool fall days and used in pies, crisps, and ciders. And there is a vast world of varieties that goes beyond the common grocery store offerings of Red Delicious and Granny Smith. With names like American Beauty, Carter’s Blue, and Fallawater, and flavors ranging from sweet to tart, this treasure trove of unique apples is ripe for discovery.

There is no better guide through this tasty world than Tom Burford, whose family has grown apples in the Blue Ridge Mountains since 1715. The book is brimming with beautiful portraits of heirloom and modern apples of merit, each accompanied by distinguishing characteristics and common uses. As the view broadens to the orchard, you will find information on planting, pruning, grafting, and more. The exploration of the apple culminates with an overview of the fruit’s transformative capabilities when pressed, fermented, cooked, or dried. Beyond the polished and predictable grocery store display of Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples, a feast of beautiful and uniquely flavored North American varieties awaits the curious.

Print length

300 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Timber Press
Publication date

September 24, 2013
Dimensions

8.38 x 1 x 9.38 inches
ISBN-10

1604692499
ISBN-13

978-1604692495
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The definitive work on our national fruit.” —Peter J. Hatch, The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello

“A lovely, browsable work for apple enthusiasts.” —Library Journal

“The long-awaited masterwork by America's greatest apple expert, Tom Burford, is an invaluable resource for lovers of flavorful and historic apples.” —Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating account of heirloom types.” —Southern Living

From the Back Cover

“A guide for the beginner and a master class for the expert—a great harvest of wisdom.” —Roger B. Swain, author and former host of PBS’s The Victory Garden

Tom Burford, fifth-generation apple grower, shines the spotlight on a selection of impressive but often overlooked North American apples. The captivating photographs will transport you from American Beauty to York—and all the sugary, spicy, sprightly apples in between. You’ll learn about varieties brought back from the edge of extinction, the apple Tom calls “the beauty queen of the russet apple world,” and a fruit with skin so deeply red that it earned the name Arkansas Black.

Written with heartfelt enthusiasm, the diverse stories behind these apples are matched only by their range of shapes and colors, textures and flavors. The book goes below the surface too. Whether you are planting a backyard orchard, experimenting with grafting, or considering a batch of apple butter, the information in the orchard primer will get you started. This start-to-finish celebration of the apple is as important as it is lovely.

About the Author

Tom Burford was a horticulturist, orchardist, nurseryman and consultant specializing in restoration, re-creation, and design at historic sites (including Monticello) as well as, backyard and commercial orchards and private estates. He was the author of Apples: A Catalog of International Varieties (1991, 1998) and co-author of The Fruit Grafters Handbook (2001). He co-authored the Brooklyn Botanic Garden book The Best Apples to Buy and Grow (2005).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

An Introduction and Brief History

The world of the apple is changing rapidly because food production and the availability of the apple’s life-giving substances are in a state of chaos and unrecognized despair. Yes, this statement is dramatic, but it is real. I am in the misunderstood but enviable position of having experienced a production and richness of the food world that today we are struggling to recapture. I am optimistic, however, that we can again make eating and the ritual of eating a joy for all. This is epitomized by what is happening to the apple.

After this somber assessment, I will tell you of my introduction to the table of delight and plenty. It began on a very hot late August day in 1935 when my mother and grandmother set off with a white oak woven basket designated for apple picking that had been woven by a Native American friend. They headed to the nearby orchard to harvest Smokehouse apples, a nineteenth-century Pennsylvania fruit, so named for growing next to a smokehouse, which ripen over a long period in late summer and early fall and are noted for making caramelized and high-flavored frying apples. On arrival my mother exclaimed they must hurry back to the house with no apples for supper. Ten minutes later I entered the world, barely escaping drawing my first earthly breath in the shade of an apple tree.

That orchard, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, contained about one hundred varieties and reflected the history of the apple in America. The trees in the orchard included varieties intended for dessert, cooking, cider, drying, applesauce, apple butter, and even livestock food. The apples ripened from June until November and came from storage until the crop was ready the next year.

In these isolated mountains with limited communications one became naïve, unaware that but few had access to the hundreds of varieties readily available that could be grafted, grown, and eaten. I was later to learn that not many people had the necessary skill or inclination to make an apple tree or explore a different variety. It became the classic negative axiom “let someone else do it” and indeed the wrong ones did, destroying the apple culture of America in the process.

For fifty years I painfully watched the disappearance of the apple culture and the emergence of so-called beautiful apples, a source of malnourishment that even posed a consumption risk from chemical contamination. Eating with the eyes of this cosmetically disguised, tasteless object brought exotic fruits, many equally tasteless, to the fruit bowls of America. And the diversity of available varieties dropped to a few dozen. One look at the apple display in a supermarket should bring tears and an exclamation of “what have we done to you?”

The response from apple connoisseurs, some fanatical like I, and organizations like the North American Fruit Explorers (founded in 1965 out of a round-robin correspondence group on uncommon fruits) was to begin distributing lesser-known apple varieties and teach grafting classes. These efforts would launch the unending search, once again, for apples of flavor instead of beauty and market value. Now, varieties that are left are not only retrieved from our rich American heritage, perhaps the greatest apple diversity in the modern world, but science has intervened to provide modern varieties that meet the challenge of the onslaught of pests and diseases that have emerged. The apple is zooming to the forefront as a food commodity in a new American agriculture.

I have presented nearly 200 North American apple varieties in this book, but this is just a handful of the thousands that deserve recognition and adulation. As you explore this world, be aware and understanding that every apple has its moment when it expresses itself at the zenith of flavor. Seldom, however, do we have this sensory experience. Most often, the apple is trying to define itself and will be less sweet or tart or crisp or melting than it holds the potential to be, but it will still satisfy our longing for the apple-taste experience. In the hundreds of apple tastings I have conducted, the same apple variety can bring the countenance of pleasure to one (“the best apple I ever ate”) and distaste to another (“are you sure this isn’t a green persimmon?”). Think of each apple as distinctive and strive to escape the ones that all taste and look the same, as most from the supermarket do. It is an adventure.

This book is intended to be practical instructions, history lessons, folklore, and particularly, inspiration and motivation—not necessarily to grow your own apples, but as an apple consumer to demand what has been denied. Above all, it is to encourage and support others to produce apples in great abundance. Then apples can, once again, be bartered, shared, and bestowed as gifts to nourish the mind, body, and soul: an unending, joyful adventure.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Timber Press; First Edition (September 24, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1604692499
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1604692495
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.42 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.38 x 1 x 9.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #830,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #196 in Tree Gardening
- #308 in Fruit Gardening
- #313 in Fruit Cooking

Customer Reviews:
4.6 108 ratings

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Sheila

Honoring the Orchard

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2019

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I once had the joy and privilege to spend a weekend in NH doing a bench grafting workshop with Tom Burford and Ben Watson. Ben had gotten his friend Tom to join him. This book reminds me of that time and is a treasure for that and for many other reasons.

First, know that my prejudice is strong for having had the experience of being with Tom. He's more than a legend. He's a fine and fun person as well as a treasure trove of knowledge and history. This book will give you lots of tastes of that. I got this in part to share with my nine-year-old granddaughter, a budding young orchardist.

This is NOT a beginners' how to manual. It is a wonderful listing of many varieties of apples, with interesting, informative bits about them, good photos and a reminder that there are thousands more.

Another reviewer suggested that this book focuses on varieties for the mid-Atlantic states. Though Tom does talk about his family experiences, he also lists many varieties for the north country and speaks of the importance of location for success with some.

For many other apples and more stories about apple varieties, get Fedco tree catalogues for several years. Fedco offers different varieties each year and the catalogs have lots of info and tales of origin, etc.

Someday there may be technology that allows us to "read" smells and tastes. Let's hope if that ever happens that someone will update this book to allow us to taste all these. Till then I recommend going to apple tastings, visiting orchards that specialize in heirloom apples, taking workshops and any other ways you can to get into the wondrous, magical world of apples. Thank you Tom Burford for sharing some of yours.

5 people found this helpful

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A. Burchfield

Very interesting, worthwhile book to read and own

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2015

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One page to an Apple, each with a representative photo. You also get a paragraph of history for each, alternate names (a lot of them in some cases) and interior/exterior descriptions, season of ripening, storage quality, tree characteristics, disease resistance, and uses for the apple(s).

No recipes for anything but you do get some tips in the Apple products section in the back. That's one of several sections in the last part of the book telling you about planning and starting your orchard (it also mentions pruning and grafting. Most of that stuff- you'll need/want a better book to really get you going. No sources listed to actually buy anything from.
Two page bibliography, mostly history (there is a cider book by Ben Watson, also mentioned in the text) and three pages of of the apples, "recommended uses of apple varieties", so you can search out Apple sauce, cider or whatever without having to wade through the whole book for apples of a type.
I'd recommend getting at least this book and Rowan Jacobsen's. "Apples of Uncommon Character" as a starting point for apple exploration.

6 people found this helpful

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Lee

HUGE Disappointment

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2018

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What a huge disappointment this book is! And it's not for the reasons others think so.

One, this book is an exercise NOT in teaching you and I, but in you and I listening to and admiring somebody revel in his own babble: it's about the self-glorification of Mr. Burford and not about us. He has no interest in teaching us; he is about you and I being servants for his own glorification. (I'm sure we've all come across horrible teachers like that: the arrow points from student to teacher and not vice versa.) Louis XIV would be green with envy . . . or think those silly and pompous judges of the televised National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day. (I'm sure you don't believe me. I don't care. I'm trying to save you from wasting your hard-earned money.)

Two, a good "how to" book includes everything from A-Z on the subject. (That's why human beings go to school, go to college and read all those textbooks. You and I do NOT know that 1+1 =2 when we slide out of mother's womb, do we?) Mr. Burford assumes AND rudely presumes that we know something already about growing apples. If we did, we wouldn't have a need to buy this book or any, would we? The WHOLE point of a "how to" book is to learn about the subject because we DO NOT know ANYTHING about it. When you have to look up things online with book in hand, then what is the purpose of this book? Why pay a lot of money for incomplete info . . . ESPECIALLY in this Age of Information? That is called a rip off.

I will expand this review later, but this will do for now. Hope you get a GOOD general idea. If you come across a better book on growing apples than this one, buy THAT one . . . and let this silly old peacock squawk all to himself.

7 people found this helpful

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Amanda St John

The best how to apple book

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2021

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The most comprehensive book there is. So many wonderful varieties and great information.

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Amazon Customer

A must read apple book

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2020

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This publication reviews several apple varieties in a quick direct manner hitting the basics that matters. I liked the informative educational material in the last part of the book. Good overall job on the subject of apples. A good first reference book that covers most subjects on selecting, grafting and growing apples, well done.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Fascinating book

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2019

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This book goes into such detail about the history, taste, use, storage quality, disease resistance, and tree growth of each apple type. It's so fascinating! Some apples are good for cider, some for pie, etc. There aren't cooking recipes if that's what you're looking for. But if you want to try growing apples yourself, this is the book for you!

One person found this helpful

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Scott Herb H

An apple a day and then some

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2017

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Fantastic! Researched and presented with love. The Apple varieties A to Z is wonderful. My only wish would be in those descriptions and pictures to also have a picture of the apple cut in half. Some apple fall farther from the tree than others so it would have been perfect if that added detail (the only one missing in this book!) could have been added.

One person found this helpful

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Quercus

although there are good sections for apple tree care/establishment

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2015

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Quite the compendium of apple varieties spanning coast to coast and north to south. Think of it more of a reference than a how-to book, although there are good sections for apple tree care/establishment, the real content is the expansive cataloging of the 170+ varieties and their various characteristics, preferences, and so on. If you love apples and apple culture, this is a no brainer for your library. And if you can go meet the man himself, do it! Incredible man, he is.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Judith Husband

Apples of North America

Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2014

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I really enjoyed Mr. Burford's book. I use it as a reference all the time now, looking up different varieties of apples that I see at farmer's markets and grocery stores. The history in the book was very appealing for me also. A very good read for me!

One person found this helpful

asillycoder

Definitely worth buying, has so much information, so ...

Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

Definitely worth buying, has so much information, so many varieties of apples, and what is turning into an invaluable resource for our orchard.

Andrew

Apples

Reviewed in Canada on April 8, 2014

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I bought this book for a knowledgeable orchardist with 140 varieties in her garden. She reports that this isn excellent book for beginers and advanced fruit tree people alike and a good addition to her already large library.
Andrew

3 people found this helpful

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Follow the Author

Apples of North America: Exceptional Varieties for Gardeners, Growers, and Cooks Hardcover – September 24, 2013

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