Apples are a staple crop in many areas of the country, with at least 10 states considered top contenders. While Washington has led the nation in production since the 1920s, one of the top-10 growers is North Carolina, especially in its mountainous regions.
This time of year, in a valley occupied by elk and deer and surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, age-old trees stand heavy with pale yellow, deep red, and shiny green apples. The hues of the heirloom apple varieties complement the rich tones of forests resplendent with autumn leaves.
Today, growing apples is big business with vast orchards and expensive harvesting and packing equipment. But once upon a time, families that established themselves early in North Carolina’s mountains took a community approach to cultivating, picking, storing, and preserving the fruit.
Just inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a historical site provides education on the importance of apples. Behind the Oconaluftee Visitor Center is the open-air Mountain Farm Museum.
There, black-and-white photographs show women in long cotton dresses peeling apples together. The whole family picked the apples when they were ripe, but women primarily made cider, vinegar, applesauce, and apple butter that would sometimes last for several months. They also dried apples, stringing them up to be cut off and eaten dried or soaked in water to add to various recipes.
Families enjoyed fresh apples each autumn, as well as apple pies, which often graced tables during Sunday meals and at community picnics.
According to the National Park Service, many properties included an outbuilding called an apple house to store the apples. “Earth and thick stone walls provided insulation from cold and heat,” verbiage informs visitors. A preserved apple house on the site demonstrates how the ground was dug out, a stone and earthen mortar base was added, and then a second-floor hand-hewn log top was placed over the stone base.
This type of apple house stored apples in bins and wooden barrels to last several months. They would be eaten fresh or used in recipes. Longevity of fresh apples often depended on the variety, whether they were crisp or soft, and when they were harvested. Apple products, like applesauce, were stored on apple house shelves.
While communities in Western North Carolina, especially along the Blue Ridge Parkway and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, no longer rely on apple growing and storing to sustain them, enjoying the picking and eating of apples and apple products—as well as attending apple festivals—is very much an annual fall tradition for thousands.
