This Retired Chemical Engineer Has Saved Over 1,000 ‘Lost’ Apple Varieties from Extinction: “I Like the Challenge”
Tom Brown is on a mission to preserve a unique piece of America’s edible heritage: heirloom apples.
A retired chemical engineer, Brown didn’t always have a passion for rare apples. In fact, he hadn’t even heard of heritage varieties until a chance visit to a farmers market in the late 1990s. There, he encountered apples with flavors, colors, and names he’d never seen before—White Winter Jon, Arkansas Black, and Etter’s Gold, to name a few.
His curiosity was sparked. After speaking with the vendor, Maurice Marshall, Brown learned that thousands of unique apple varieties had vanished as commercial growers narrowed their focus to just a few mainstream types during the 20th century. By that time, just 11 apple varieties made up 90% of sales in the U.S. This revelation didn’t sit well with Brown. “It upset me to learn about that,” he recalled in an interview with Atlas Obscura.
Marshall explained that many of the apples in his collection had been recovered from old homesteads in Appalachia—an indication that more forgotten varieties might still exist, hidden in abandoned orchards and rural backyards. “That part stayed with me,” Brown said. “I kept thinking: How neat would it be to find an apple nobody’s tasted in 50 or 100 years?”
Looking for a meaningful retirement hobby, Brown found his calling in the hunt for these lost apples. After connecting with a small network of rare fruit enthusiasts and immersing himself in research, he began scouring the countryside, tracking down old trees, and sharing their unique fruits with the world.
To date, Tom Brown has rescued more than 1,200 heirloom apple varieties from extinction. He currently cultivates around 700 of them in his own orchard. In some cases, the trees he found were the last known specimens of their kind.
Although proud of his achievements, Brown has no intention of slowing down. “I like the challenge of finding the old apples,” he told Southern Living. “My favorite apple is one that I am searching for but have not found yet.”
