The first photo-text book ever published on the history of Shenandoah Valley apples.

Through oral histories and gorgeous color photographs of and memorable oral histories about apple orchards and workplaces in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge regions of Virginia, Shenandoah Valley Apples explores the history, current conditions, and possible future of apple growing in the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge regions of Virginia. The book explores questions such as: What was apple growing like in early Virginia agriculture? How has the apple industry changed over time? What are the greatest challenges currently faced by growers? What are the most satisfying aspects of work in the apple industry? What are the greatest hopes of apple growers for the future?

Shenandoah Valley Apples relays a historical and cultural legacy exemplified by relationships between people and the land in an economy that has been regional, national, and international in nature. Through commentaries by apple growers, we learn of the constant economic pressures of international trade and encroaching development that are changing the apple industry with unprecedented severity and speed. At the same time, we read proud stories of adaptation, perseverance, and success. Shenandoah Valley Apples preserves the legacy of one of Virginia's most important and rapidly disappearing cultural landscapes: It also raises awareness of and concern for broader issues that affect not only apple growing agriculture but land use in general.

The photographs and oral histories included in Shenandoah Valley Apples were made throughout the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge country in Virginia. The commentaries featured are those of first- through fifth-generation apple growers. The orchards that were photographed range from a nine-acre roadside operation and mid-sized orchards on diversified family farms to some of the nation's largest commercial orchards.

$35.00 U.S. (trade discount)
Cloth/PLC
144 pages with 87 color photographs by the author and four black-and-white historic photographs
12.0" x 10.0" landscape
ISBN 978–1–938086–74–8

Published in 2013; re-released in 2020

Distributed by Casemate/IPM
www.casemateipm.com
No e-book has been authorized.

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