Discover why thousands of flavorful fruit varieties were removed from commercial production in favor of a select few. Learn how these forgotten crops served medieval households for food and medicine, and how they can be reintroduced to modern gardens.
Your grocery store sells about 20 varieties of fruit. But in 1905, American orchards alone grew over 14,000 named varieties of just apples. So where did they go? They were not lost. They did not go extinct on their own. They were removed. Some were made illegal to grow. In 1911, the federal government sent crews with chemical sprayers to destroy one of the most nutritious fruits on the planet because the lumber industry told them to. Others were bulldozed when corporations signed national contracts demanding only fruits that could survive a 2,000-mile truck ride.
What replaced thousands of varieties was 20 that look good under fluorescent lighting. And the ones they erased had more nutrition, more flavor, and more resilience than anything in your produce aisle.
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