Rare apple hunter Tom Brown crisscrosses the US to preserve history

It’s our Fall Pledge Drive and KCRW Board Member Alicia Lovelace wants to double your gift. Donate by midnight tomorrow! join us Tom Brown and his apple display at the Mountaineer Folk Festival in Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN. Photo courtesy of Tom Brown. If ever anyone qualifies for the title of modern day Johnny Appleseed, it's Tom Brown, a retired chemical engineer. He's been scouring Appalachia since the 1990s, searching for and preserving rare apple varieties. He's discovered approximately 1200 varieties and counting at his orchard Heritage Apples and Clemens, North Carolina. He showcases around 700 of them. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. KCRW: Were you always interested in apples? Tom Brown: I grew up in rural Iredell County, outside of Statesville, North Carolina. We had one apple tree that Mother made pies out of, and we call that a pound apple. We had seven real large unknown apple trees that we made cider out of and many, many years later, was able

It’s our Fall Pledge Drive and KCRW Board Member Alicia Lovelace wants to double your gift. Donate by midnight tomorrow! join us Tom Brown and his apple display at the Mountaineer Folk Festival in Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN. Photo courtesy of Tom Brown. If ever anyone qualifies for the title of modern day Johnny Appleseed, it's Tom Brown, a retired chemical engineer. He's been scouring Appalachia since the 1990s, searching for and preserving rare apple varieties. He's discovered approximately 1200 varieties and counting at his orchard Heritage Apples and Clemens, North Carolina. He showca