Question for a friend from Charlotte, NC, for anyone familiar with that area.
Where can she go to find Limbertwigs and other heritage apples from North Carolina?
I suggested to her a couple years ago that she should seek out Limbertwigs. She hasn’t found any yet. She’s a city girl, so she thought a farmers market would be her best bet. She was very disappointed with her local farmers market last week. All she could find were gala, honey crisp, blondee, and crimson crisp. This repeats what she has found in previous years – pretty much all that was offered were supermarket varieties. But somebody around must be offering Limbertwigs, right?
Here’s the little bit that I know. The Joyners from Big Horse Creek Farm usually start selling apples this time of year at the Ashe county farmers market. Long drive from Charlotte though, Perry Lowe orchards in Marovian Falls sells limbertwigs. Brushy Mountain (my favorite) and maybe one other. I would try them first as that’s a lot closer to home. Also Horne Creek Farm has a very large limbertwig planting among many others but I’m not sure what they do with all the apples. They specialize in trees. Might be worth an email or phone call though. Perry Lowe also does a u pick if you schedule it. Makes for a neat and enjoyable experience. The brushy mountain apple festival is October 7th in north Wilkesboro as well. Unfortunately most of the old orchards have been chopped down and replaced with newer more productive varieties.
A good start. Thanks. But all of those places are close to 90 minutes away, so unless she has another reason for the trip, I don’t think she’d go to the Brushy Mountain area for a handful of apples.
On the Lowes website it says Limbertwigs ready around mid October. They keep so well so worth buying more than a handful. I wish I was only 90 minutes away from an orchard that sold them.
It’d be a real stroke of luck to find limbertwigs at a market less than an hour from Charlotte.
Asheville might possibly have someone selling a limbertwig variety or two, at their big farmer’s market, but I’d not count on it. (And that not closer than Alexander or Ash counties, either.)
@highdesertheritage gave the best general information a person is likely to come by…unless somebody actually knows someone in Charlotte area raising heritage apples.
They do sell apples. But only about 10 varieties or so if I remember correctly. You can sample about 50 while you’re there though. His open house is pretty neat. I really enjoyed it last year. He was even nice enough to let my family and I walk the orchard and sample anything we wanted.
Would Century Farms “Old Fashioned Limbertwig” be the same as Brushy Mountain Limbertwig? They say it ripens in November and is sweeter than other Limbertwigs.
No sir. Old fashioned is a variety all its own. Brushy mountain is a smaller apple, very firm, juicy, sweet and flavorful. I tried as many apples as I could last year at Century Farm and that was my favorite followed by Swiss LT. Not only are Limbertwigs easy to grow but they taste wonderful.