This talk explores a citizen science community documenting and using wild apples for cider production in New York and New England. Combining ethnography with horticultural analysis, it identifies shared selection principles guiding apple foraging. These principles reveal practical, aesthetic, and philosophical values that reflect responses to climate change, land access, agricultural innovation, and sustainable rural food economies.
Maria Kennedy is an Assistant Teaching Professor of American Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and director of the Curation and Cultural Programming certificate.From 2018-2024, Dr. Kennedy served as Administrative Director and Co-Director of the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers University.
Papers circulated before the talk. Please email Sylvia Chan-Malik at