They used to float through like leaves
Apparently apples come from an area of Kazakhstan, and they're trying to rejuvenate the area. It's a pretty fascinating story for a few reasons (and I'd love to try an aport, especially the "grapefruit-sized monster-apple" kind), but the best part is this:
The place of apples in the city's history seems at times almost mythical.
Mr Alexeyev described how as a boy in the 1960s he used to fish apples, which had apparently floated down from the orchards, out of the ditches which run at the side of the city's sloping streets.
"They used to float through like leaves," he said. "We never even had to buy them at the market." This unusual source of nourishment dried up when Almaty was modernised in the early 1970s.
The place of apples in the city's history seems at times almost mythical.
Mr Alexeyev described how as a boy in the 1960s he used to fish apples, which had apparently floated down from the orchards, out of the ditches which run at the side of the city's sloping streets.
"They used to float through like leaves," he said. "We never even had to buy them at the market." This unusual source of nourishment dried up when Almaty was modernised in the early 1970s.
