If you’re not familiar with heirloom apples you may be surprised to discover just how many varieties of apples actually exist and can still be found growing in local orchards and backyard fruit gardens. Following is a partial listing of the heirloom apples being cultivated in Central Pennsylvania landscapes.

A recent article about rare backyard fruits described my first experience with the uncommon jujube fruit, which is also known as a Chinese Date. No, I wasn’t a bit impressed with this odd tree fruit that I had just tasted for the first time. Despite the so-so encounter with my first jujube I decided to keep an open mind about the worthiness of a jujube tree in the backyard edible landscape.

While the most common fruit at the tasting was the apple, there were a number of rare and unusual types of fruits available for sampling including; paw paws, cactus pears, ju jube fruits (aka Chinese dates), home grown nuts, hardy kiwis, and assorted varieties of persimmons. These fruits may sound foreign and exotic, but they were all grown and harvested from the landscapes and gardens of the association’s members, or in some cases picked from trees growing wild in the local countryside.