In a region where orchards take up the largest portion of 2.07 lac hectares of farmland and annual exports sometimes exceed a crop of over 250 million boxes, it is easy to imagine its primary cash crop, ‘the apple’ as a native fruit growing on her lofty hills and mountains since the beginning of time.
Yet nothing can be farther from the truth.
Ancient Himachal was a paradoxical Eden with not a single apple tree to be found within her present day borders, till a pioneering bunch of British settlers introduced two strains of bitter apples, and in 1916 arrived the non-indigenous Red Delicious – an American variety of sweet apples from Iowa (USA), identified in 1872 A.D.
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First planted by Samuel Evans Stokes (see Hindu article: A foreigner and freedom fighter), an American social worker turned experimental farmer, the fruit was the precursor that kick-started the hill state’s apple industry with its sweet tantalizing taste, and put it on course to be a major power in cultivation.
Presently, this Indian state produces over sixteen varieties of different apples, of which the royal, red and golden variety rate high on the popularity charts.
