This week, Roy decided he would like to investigate something a little closer to home. Later this week, March 9th, is the anniversary of the death of one of Australia's most important Granny's - Granny Smith, who died in 1870. Now, you might recognise the name Granny Smith as a type of apple, but when Roy asked his friends how many of them knew about the history of this apple, he was surprised to discover that very few of them knew who Granny Smith actually was! So this week, Roy decided he would like to take you all to what remains of the site of her orchard and tell you about Granny Smith and her famous apples.
Granny Smith Memorial Park is located in Eastwood in Sydney ,NSW (Australia) on Threlfall Street. Once, a long time ago, it was part of the orchard where Granny Smith grew her apples. Today, there isn't a lot of evidence left of her Orchard, but the park marks part of its Southern Boundary. It isn't a huge park, but it has play equipment and lots of open space to kick a ball, throw a frisbee or fly a kite. It also has an old fashioned slippery dip which Roy absolutely loved!
Granny Smith was born in Sussex, England in 1799, the daughter of a farm labourer. Her real name was Maria Ann Sherwood. As she grew up she also went to work on a farm, and when she was 19 she married another farm labourer from a neighbouring town, Thomas Smith. The Smiths stayed in England for 19 years and during this time, Maria had 8 children. With all the experience in farm work the couple had, it was perhaps no surprise that when the Government started to recruit families with sorely needed agricultural and trade skills for the struggling colony in Australia, that they volunteered and were chosen to go. They sailed on the Lady Nugent with their five surviving children and arrived in Sydney on 27 November 1838.
The couple and their children worked on other peoples properties for many years, but in 1855 Thomas Smith bought about 24 acres of land on the edge of the Field Of Mars Common. The Ryde area was known for fruit growing and the couple created an orchard on the property. Granny Smith soon started to specialise in growing apples from seedlings. This is how the Granny Smith Apple was probably born. Unfortunately, we don't have an account of how the apple developed from Granny Smiths lifetime, and in fact the apple didn't even become a successful commercial variety until after her death. In the Farmer and Settler magazine for 1924 though, there is an account of how the apple was discovered. The article included an interview with a local orchardist, Edwin Small, who remembered visiting the Smiths with his father in 1868 to view a seedling which was growing at the Smiths Orchard near a creek. Who knows, perhaps the ditches in the park which look like they were once a creek, now drained into a pipe underground, might be the remains of this very creek! This seedling was apparently the first Granny Smith Apple. Over 20 years after Granny Smith herself died, in 1891 her apples, 'Granny Smith's Seedling', won first prize at the Castle Hill Show for best cooking apple. 4 years later, in 1895, Granny Smith's Seedling was named a suitable fruit for export. The Granny Smith's future as a favourite apple, particularly for cooking (apparently it makes the best toffee apples, apple sauce and apple crumble), was assured. If you would like to learn more about Granny Smith and her apples, click here.