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Monty's Surprise - any in US or do we have an extra nutritious apple here?

 
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Great article about a highly nutritious apple from New Zealand called Monty's Surprise
Excerpt:

"The institute tested the [Monty Surprise] apples and compared them with 250 other varieties. The apples from the roadside tree had exceptionally high levels of phytonutrients. In fact, the skin of the apples had more flavonoids than any other known variety of apple and the second highest amount of beneficial compounds called proanthocyanidins"


Full article: Science Friday - Monty's Surprise

You can read about it at their organization's website Tree Crop Research.
From their website:

Comparison of Levels of Health-Promoting Compounds

Total Flavonoids: Apple flavonoids are found almost entirely in the skin and are composed of glycosides of quercetin. Quercetin glycosides are powerful antioxidants but have other biological properties such as anti-cancer activity that may be beneficial. In several populations apple is the major source of quercetin after onion. Apple is a good dietary source of quercetin.
Skin (ug/cm2) Flesh (ug/g FW)
Monty's Surprise 398.8 20.9
Red Delicious 108.9 4.5
Pacific Rose 111.2 4.1

Procyanidins: Although there is little evidence that procyanidins are absorbed into the body there is direct evidence to support their use for enhancing health. Procyanidins are effective antioxidants and have other activities such as inhibition of platelet activity. Several successful antioxidant products are based on procyanidins including grape seed extract and pine bark extract (Enzogenol and Pycnogenol). Some other fruits also contain substantial procyanidin concentrations such as grape, and persimmon. Additionally, the health properties of cocoa (and chocolate) are promoted due to the high procyanidin content.
Skin Flesh
Monty's Surprise 722.0 1426.5
Red Delicious 452.5 546.7
Pacific Rose 233.7 323.5




If these are as good as they say they are why aren't we fighting harder to get them here? A few thoughts:
1) If someone has one, please contact me offline
2) Does the US have an equivalent?
3) Would people be interested in a kickstarter to raise the funds necessary to get the USDA approvals needed to legally bring the scions and seeds into the country. It may not be that hard, it may be an issue of getting Americans to 'pull' them in versus New Zealanders trying to 'push' the scions in. I don't know the process of getting scions in, it may not be that hard. If we need to do the kickstarter to fund USDA lobbying, tests, whatever it is, I am sure we can come up with a way for Paul to be the "Supreme Executive Producer with Bacon, Cheese and Sparkles" of the project.


In medieval times there was a saying 'Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed makes the doctor beg his bread', which we now know as 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'. We have begun, firstly with the identification of Monty's Surprise as a high health variety, and secondly with the distribution of these apple trees throughout the Wanganui region and further afield, a model that we hope will turn this ancient saying into a reality, once more.

I think this is true. Eating a modern Fuji Apple from supermarket may not be as healthy as you think it is.

I am curious to hear people's thoughts.
 
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According to this study our most nutritious apple is the Ida Red. It isn't generally available in stores but can be found at several local orchards in our area. I especially like Ida Reds because they are great keepers in our root cellar. They generally last until the first of August of the following year.

G. M. Huber and H. P. V. Rupasinghe. Phenolic proles and antioxidant properties of apple skin extracts. J. Food Sci., 74(9):693, 2009.

I have planted a variety of trees and would be very interested in adding Monty's Surprise to my collection. Perhaps it too would be an excellent keeper.
 
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In general, crabapples are the most nutritious apples. MOre skin per apple.
John S
PDX OR
 
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Any luck on finding/importing these?
 
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It might be easier to work with a company that already imports seeds and plants. I know Baker Creek has plant hunters going all over the world. Try emailing them to see if they can get it. They might like adding it to their catalog.
 
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this reminded me...Burnt Ridge Nursery in Onalaska, WA said in 2018 that they would have these in three years...so 2021. I should check with them to confirm this schedule.
 
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Here is another article about Monty’s Surprise and the research that has been conducted on it
https://www.heritagefoodcrops.org.nz/montys-surprise-apple/
 
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Mark Christensen came and gave a talk here a couple of years ago on heritage trees and Monty's in particular, and gave away several trees at the end. I didn't get one on the night but we do have one at the community orchard and I've grafted scions from it onto rootstock without any trouble, and will be planting a couple out this winter.

Definitely one of the most vigorous apples I've seen. The trees can put on 2m leaders in one growing season, and by the time they're five or six years old they can have fruits that weigh close to a kilogram. Good branch structure is a must!
 
Megan Palmer
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Hello Phil,
would love to trade some of your Monty’s surprise for scions from our community garden orchard, have nine or ten apples from the SCES collection as well as a few peaches, apricots, plums of which several are stone grown from local trees - white free stone peach from Hawea via Ben Elms aka Dr Compost who demonstrated t budding at a workshop at the gardens, a Gibbston black boy peach aka blood peach, peche de vigne, Christmas plum, Roxburgh apricots, golden queen etc.

Will pm you.

Many thanks, Megan
 
Phil Stevens
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Thanks Megan. It's a small country, isn't it? Ben's one of my biochar mates. I'm more than happy to trade scion wood, obviously when the season is right for it. We may want to swap stonefruit whips soon if we're going to do budding...Sarah from Edible Garden likes to do this in Feb.
 
Megan Palmer
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A small country indeed, Ben gave me a bag of experimental biochar he made using spent grape seed pips in exchange for some stropharia rugosoannulata that he used to make a slurry to innoculent wood chips in the Hawea food forest.

Another one of the apple varieties mentioned in the Heritage food crops article is Hetlina that was available at Ben’s budding workshop. Unfortunately, although my graft took, a possum attacked the tree and chewed off the branch😔
 
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Just to keep you informed; The US customs allowed a cargo of Montys Surprise apple trees to leave quarantine last year, for; I suspect: to go to the Fruit Nurseries for the exclusive use of the fruit industry. I do not believe that you will see any of this variety on open sale for a long long time, as the nurseries will keep very tight hold of them to keep a monopoly of them to maximise their profits!! As the original tree was found on a New Zealand roadside and was a natural selection, not one that was bred; then the nurseries are prohibited from charging a ROYALTY!! I have been grafting these beauties for about 7 yrs. My biggest one was a 1lb 9ozs which I grew last year (about Xmas Time) I repeat; They ARE being allowed into USA. I suggest that someone chase that up with your relevant authorities. I am resident in UK. The next apple on that list (cancer Fighter) is Hetlina which is an old Hungarian or Polish variety? Regards, David.
 
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Hello,
have read about the research by Heritage food crops reasearch about the Monty’s surprise apple. Would like to add this to my little collection of appletrees. Do anybody know of a source of plants or scions in EU/Europe?
Sincereley,
Hans Engqvist
 
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There is little point to trying to get seeds of a good apple variety. Apples do not breed true. If you buy a Monty's Surprise fruit, don't expect much from planting the seeds.

The key would be to get good scions to the US and get them grafted on to good rootstock by someone who knows what he is doing. (Every graft I attempted has failed!)
 
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Burnt Ridge Nursery in Washington State has these trees, in the ground, waiting for USDA to release them from quarantine before they dig them for bareroot sales.  They expect that to happen in the next couple of weeks.  I'm on the waitlist!  They aren't on the website yet, but they are featured in their print catalog.
 
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Michael Lundahl wrote:Burnt Ridge Nursery in Washington State has these trees, in the ground, waiting for USDA to release them from quarantine before they dig them for bareroot sales.  They expect that to happen in the next couple of weeks.  I'm on the waitlist!  They aren't on the website yet, but they are featured in their print catalog.



I'm looking forward to it. I got to see the tree and learn about it when I did a nursery tour at Burntridge back in 2019 and even then they were waiting for the USDA to ok them. I didn't know they had a wait-list. I'd better get on it.
 
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Monty's Surprise is now available from Burnt Ridge Nursery.  You can order here: https://www.burntridgenursery.com/MONTYS-SURPRISE-Malus-domestica/productinfo/NSAPMON/
 
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Jo Robinson has a great book about phytonutrients in wild foods titled "Eat Wild." The excerpt on apples is available online. She mentions Monty's surprise, but she has a list of others that are also high in nutrients and more commonly available.

I've always liked Liberty from her list. It's designed for organic production, and looks and tastes great. Not a long keeper, though.

I've always assumed if an apple tastes "complex" that it probably has a lot of phytonutrients. Do you think that's a fair guess?

https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/all-about-apples-some-history-a-recipe-and-recommendations/
 
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One thing I CANNOT find out about this cultivar is its hardiness zone. Does anyone else have that information available? I have a Monty’s Suprise on Antonovka rootstock.
 
Jenny Wright
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Sharon Moreno wrote:One thing I CANNOT find out about this cultivar is its hardiness zone. Does anyone else have that information available? I have a Monty’s Suprise on Antonovka rootstock.


I know it's good in Zone 6.
 
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Burnt ridge nursery in onalaska washington has them
 
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