Going to Seed
A Consummate Homesteader Defies Convention by Growing New Apple Varieties from Seed
by Steve Edholm
After moving to this 40-acre homestead in the coastal range of Mendocino County about 15 years ago, I became fairly obsessed with apples, collecting and testing hundreds of varieties. I had just read Michael Pollan’s chapter on apples in A Botany of Desire. Unfortunately, Pollan’s story is woven around a common myth, which is that apples grown from seed are nearly always useless for eating. I had reason to believe otherwise.
When grown from seed, instead of by grafting, apples show a very high variability in size, appearance, growth habits, and flavor. Some take a negative view of that trait, pointing out that they may turn out too different than the parent tree, or even unpalatable. While that is possible, this variability is also the reason apples are our most diverse fruit outside of the tropics.
In the early 1900s, Albert Etter of Humboldt County asked his plant breeding mentor about improving apples by growing new varieties from seed and was told not to bother trying. Ignoring that advice, he bred some fantastic varieties, becoming a pioneer in apple breeding. Among other apples, he is responsible for the most well known red fleshed apple, Pink Pearl.
In 2010, against the advice of many, I planted seeds from a Wickson apple acquired from my friends at The Apple Farm in Philo. I was already hooked. The idea that I might make new apple varieties with unique traits like exotic flavors and red flesh was extremely compelling, and by 2011, I was making intentional cross pollinations. I chose one parent with incredible flavor and deep pink flesh called Grenadine, and I gathered pollen from a few excellent apples to pollinate it with. By choosing both parents, I have more control of the traits I want, like crossing cherry flavored apples with red fleshed, berry flavored ones. The resulting trees were then grafted onto dwarf rootstocks and planted in rows to await fruiting, which typically takes five or more years.
In 2015, the first of those original seedlings fruited and turned out to be very good! I named it BITE ME! for the people who said it couldn’t be done. Etter had not only inspired me to follow the same inspired risk, but I also use many of his apples in breeding for their unique traits. BITE ME!, grown from a seed of Etter’s Wickson, is my poster child for growing apples from seed.
I determined to spread the obsession, and began making videos about the project for my YouTube channel. I’ve sent out grafting wood, pollen, and seeds across America, and to many other countries. I hear back from people regularly that they have their own little apple breeding project, and some not so little. Many of these people have never really grown anything at all before.
I’ve sent out thousands of Wickson seeds alone, and thousands of others, some intentionally cross pollinated and some randomly pollinated by bees. Given that the very first apple I ever fruited from seed has become one of my favorites and a top 10 variety out of hundreds grown here, this is going to get extremely interesting in the next few years, when all of those dispersed seeds begin to bear fruit! Clearly this project has had a desired ripple effect, but it’s not just about apples and the many amazing varieties that will result.
When the apple first came to America, it exploded in diversity. New varieties cropped up by the thousands. Some were only known locally, and these local crop varieties were of critical importance to successful small scale farming. Farmers created, propagated, and discussed them. Consumers who bought them knew their names, loved them, talked about them, and looked forward to them in season. Beginning in the early 19th century, large scale farmers growing for broader markets gravitated toward a few varieties with particular profitable traits, such as appearance and shipping durability. As more citizens became consumers instead of producers, apple diversity went off a cliff, and most varieties were lost forever. Consumers became less savvy, and eventually the market became dominated by three apples at a time, red, yellow, and green.
The industrial food model brings us many benefits, but also many grave pitfalls. The secret to maintaining apple diversity is not in the hands of consumers buying politically correct apples, though. Nor is it in housing rare apple varieties in large collections. The heart and soul of apples and all food crops will atrophy unless they are part of a living food culture that talks about, grows, eats, shares, and propagates them. Breeding and selection of our food crops is the facet of that viable culture which we have become most divorced from.
Before the industrial food paradigm, many great apples were grown from seed, or selected from chance seedlings by ordinary people. Large breeders now pursue very narrow goals, starting and ending with profit for large growers. The victim’s stance is that we are being exploited by this system, but unless there is a law against planting seeds, we can blame only ourselves for the tragic loss of apple diversity and those disappointing cardboard tomatoes. To regain it requires only seeds, soil, water, intent, and patience. Not only is it possible for us to breed outstanding new apples that serve people over profit, but the great diversity of form and flavor dwelling within the apple gene pool has actually only just begun to be realized. Apples, in all their intriguing diversity, are the gateway fruit back into that vibrant, living food culture.
I currently have selected out over 20 seedling apples for quality assessment and use in further breeding. I plan to make any varieties which prove to be worthy available to orchardists in the future at the Winter Abundance Seed and Scion Exchange in Boonville and elsewhere. For more on this project, see my YouTube channel SkillCult. This altruistic project runs on personal funds, seed, pollen, and scion sales, and small contributions which are graciously accepted.
Find out more at: www.skillcult.com | www.youtube.com/skillcult
www.patreon.com/skillcult | Instagram @SkillCult
Steve Edholm is a long time practitioner and teacher of practical arts and self reliance skills. His main goal is to encourage greater physical and mental independence in an age of increasing dependency and helplessness.
