Young fruit-bearing trees are now growing throughout the property. Whatever the number, I was certain there were more varieties available than in almost any commercial supermarket. Red Delicious, Jonathan and McIntosh are Michigan's big three. Northern Spy, an old variety, is still grown widely for use in pies and to make cider. Shelf life, texture, uniform ripening and disease resistance are the most sought-after traits.
Distinctive taste is barely in the first tier of breeding goals.
Growers, moreover, are reluctant to experiment by introducing unfamiliar varieties. Production costs are too high and profit margins too slim, and tearing out a productive orchard to test an unknown is too big a leap for most growers. Fortunately, apples have not descended to the level of the modern tomato. Wild apple trees are still so prevalent in this so-called center of diversity that they constitute 40 percent of the native forest, said James Luby, an apple breeder and a professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota. Moreover, there are 6,000 known commercial apple varieties in the world, a deep reservoir of genetic material for the next century.