The University of Georgia’s Heritage Apple Orchard, located at the Georgia Mountain Research & Education Center (GMREC) in Blairsville, was created in 2021 to restore and preserve rare and heirloom apple varieties that were once part of a thriving North Georgia apple industry.
The orchard not only serves as a research hub but also as a public education site, showcasing apple varieties that may offer useful traits such as heat, humidity, and disease resistance. The initiative is especially valuable as the modern apple industry focuses on a limited number of commercially popular varieties, leaving behind many historically significant species.
In this video, UGA history Professor Stephen Mihm and GMREC Superintendent Ray Covington talk about the purpose of the Heritage Apple Orchard and how Georgia’s lost apples are making a comeback.
