Granny Smith apple

The Real Granny Smith: A Passion For Apples

by Susan VanHecke on Oct 7, 2009

You know it, you love it -- the Granny Smith apple. The gleaming chartreuse skin. That brilliant crunch. The perfect balance of juicy-sweet and tongue-curling tart that makes it the ideal eating and cooking apple. But did you know there really was a Granny Smith? Born Maria Ann Sherwood to a farming family in the lush agricultural area of Sussex, England in 1799, she married Thomas Smith, a farm laborer, when she was 19. They settled in the parish of Beckley, worked the land, and started a family. In 1838, the Smiths were tapped by government agents looking for farmers willing to relocate to New South Wales, Australia. The British colony had been founded 50 years earlier as a penal settlement, a place to send convicts. But as more and more free settlers arrived in New South Wales, agricultural workers were desperately needed to feed the developing colony. Prospective emigrants were offered attractive financial incentives to make the move. The Smiths took advantage of the...Read More >>