"As the owner of HogTree and one of the world’s leading apple experts, Greenman is spreading the word that apple varieties—or “cultivars”—are disappearing from the planet every day. At the turn of the 20th century, at least 17,000 cultivars were grown in the United States. Today the number is closer to 7,000.
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She has organized her orchard so that dozens of different apple varieties (along with pears, mulberries, and persimmons) produce fruit in succession from June to November, a precisely timed strategy that blankets the ground with fruit that entire period and feeds her foraging hogs. In seven months, she can grow 25-pound piglets into 300-pound adults, with sales of the resulting high-end charcuterie going to support the entire operation.
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Yes, there are naturally disease-resistant apple trees in Kyrgyzstan, but it’s not all genetics. Greenman found wild orchards where people have been grazing livestock for generations, where symbiotic relationships have developed among people, animals, and trees. For example, whenever a worm bores into an apple in these orchards, the tree drops the apple. But before the worm can enter the soil and pupate into something hazardous for trees, a sheep or cow eats the apple, which halts the pests’ life cycle. The sheep scores a meal, the tree dodges potential disease, and people ultimately get meat. Greenman left Kyrgyzstan with an important lesson: “I learned that I have to put animals in my orchards.”"
https://stories.sewanee.edu/the-apple-queen-s-gambit/
...
She has organized her orchard so that dozens of different apple varieties (along with pears, mulberries, and persimmons) produce fruit in succession from June to November, a precisely timed strategy that blankets the ground with fruit that entire period and feeds her foraging hogs. In seven months, she can grow 25-pound piglets into 300-pound adults, with sales of the resulting high-end charcuterie going to support the entire operation.
...
Yes, there are naturally disease-resistant apple trees in Kyrgyzstan, but it’s not all genetics. Greenman found wild orchards where people have been grazing livestock for generations, where symbiotic relationships have developed among people, animals, and trees. For example, whenever a worm bores into an apple in these orchards, the tree drops the apple. But before the worm can enter the soil and pupate into something hazardous for trees, a sheep or cow eats the apple, which halts the pests’ life cycle. The sheep scores a meal, the tree dodges potential disease, and people ultimately get meat. Greenman left Kyrgyzstan with an important lesson: “I learned that I have to put animals in my orchards.”"
https://stories.sewanee.edu/the-apple-queen-s-gambit/