The Light Between Apple Trees

"A deeply meditative book in the vein of Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Swee/grass." - Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of anOctopus As a childin the foothills ofthe Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchardsof diverse and luscious fruit-especially apples. These biodiverse orchards seemed worlds away from the cardboard apples that linedsupermarket shelves in the UnitedStates. Yet on a small patchof woods near her home in Santa Fe, Kumar discovered a wild apple tree-and theseeds of an odysseywere planted. Could the taste of a feral apple offera doorway to the wild? In The Light Between Apple Trees, Kumartakes us on a dazzlingand transformative journeyto rediscover apples, unearthing a rich and complex history while illuminating how we can reimagine ourrelationship with nature. Apples are popular, but in our everyday lives we rarely encounter more than a handful ofvarieties: of the sixteen thousand apple varieties once celebratedin America, scarcely a fifth remain accessible. Kumar reveals the richness of a hidden world, bringing readers to the vibrant forests and orchards where historic trees still survive. Thesemature and wild orchards offer more than just fruit: they are havens for creatures from hummingbirds to bears and a living connection to generations past. She brilliantly weaves together science and childhoodmemories with the apple's storied history, from its roots in Kazakhstan to Spanish orchards in the Southwest and Thomas Jefferson's beloved Monticello fruitery.