Bill Dodd stands next to the EverCrisp mother tree, which grows at the Doud family’s County Line Orchard near Wabash, Indiana. (Courtesy Bill Dodd.) The first fruit of a grassroots apple breeding program is making its way into growers’ orchards. EverCrisp apple trees are being sold this winter by Wafler’s Nursery in Wolcott, New York. EverCrisp was bred by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association, which has no formal plant breeder other than a group of growers who organized in 1998, convinced they can recognize superior apples and could create them—and do it operating on a shoestring budget. The EverCrisp patent […]