Newly-developed apple varieties dominate because they have been carefully selected for maximum production, storage and transport qualities, appearance, etc., et

Newly-developed apple varieties dominate because they have been carefully selected for maximum production, storage and transport qualities, appearance, etc., etc. However, if you want to see some truly weird apples, heirlooms offer way more interest and variety if you can find them. (This probably involves making friends with people who have old trees, rather than finding a shop that sells them.) For example, I live on an old family farm with an heirloom apple variety (unknown name, if it was ever named at all, but dating back to at least the 1850s) that is spicy and bubbles/fizzes when you bite into it. It's quite cool, and I think it is something some people would want to buy, but it is unsuited to modern commercial production for a few reasons; for example, it fruits on new wood at the tips of the branches, which makes it less suited to modern tree pruning strategies (all modern apple varieties fruit on older wood, which makes them much easier to prune).