The village of Peasmarsh offers a real taste of Old England, with its church and manor house. Whilst currently its fame is as the home of Sir Paul McCartney, for pomologists that claim to fame is that the original Granny Smith was born there in 1799.
Maria Ann Smith and her husband, Thomas, emigrated to Eastwood in the Australian state of New South Wales, in 1839. The area was well known as a centre of fruit cultivation, and in about 1855 they purchased a small orchard and began growing fruit. Mrs. Smith was a well-known local figure, and in old age was given the nickname of Granny Smith, because of the number of grandchildren that had been produced by her eight children.
The Granny Smith apple originated in about 1868, but there are two stories that tell how it came about. The first is that it was the result of a chance seedling that grew beside a creek. The Smiths had dumped the remnants of some Tasmanian grown French style crab apples there and it just sprouted. The alternative origin is that Mrs. Smith had been trying out some recipes using French style crab apples and threw the cores out of the kitchen window, under which the chance seedling sprouted.
No matter the true origin, Mrs. Smith cultivated the surprise newcomer and found it suitable for both cooking and eating. They looked like cooking apples but were sweet and crispy. She took a stall at George Street market in Sydney. It was found that the apples kept well and became best-sellers when she decided to open her stall once a week.
Granny Smith died in 1870, but another local fruit grower, Edward Gallard, was aware of the popularity of the new apple. When Thomas Smith died in 1876, he bought the Smith orchard. A success locally, it became nationally known in 1890, when it was shown at the Castle Hill Agricultural and Horticultural Show. In 1891 it was winning prizes under the name Granny Smith’s Seedling. Its fame spread so that within a short time others were cultivating it.
The cultivar was recognized by the Department of Agriculture and grown on the Government Experimental Station at Bathurst. Its fame spread worldwide, promoted by the government for its excellent keeping properties. These included being available for picking in March and keeping well in store until November. This led to a booming export trade for the apples, part of the increasing demand for Australian food. By 1975, 40% of Australia’s apple crop was the Granny Smith.
A Granny Smith festival has been held annually in Eastwood since 1985, now attracting about 100,000 visitors. Without a lady from Peasmarsh, the world may well have missed out on one of its favourite, tastiest apples.
Image Credits: Fructbus .