Everything you need to know about tasty heirloom fruits

It's no wonder gourmets are rediscovering heirloom fruits. They may be oldies but their goodies! Choose to grow them organically, without chemical treatments and fertilizers, and you'll reap a healthy reward.

Cherries, plums and damson plums are considered stone fruits. The heirloom varieties generally make few soil demands and stack up well in terms of hardiness. Here are some you might like to try.

• Good plums for preserving are the Damson, Marabella, Green Gage, Yellow Egg and Black Prince. (Tip: With some plum varieties, the stone is easier to remove; just use a teaspoon to pry the stone from a halved plum.)
• Cherries with particularly split-resistant skins include the Sandra Rose, Silvia, Lapin and North Star.
• Good cherry varieties for preserving are the Montmorency and Bing.

In the early 19th century, as many as 6,650 apple varieties flourished in North America. Fast-forward to today, and only a handful of them survive in large numbers. Here are some tasty choices.

• Many old apple varieties place no great demands on the soil and thus are comparatively hardy. These include the Alexander, Baldwin, Ben Davis, Canada Red, Grimes Golden, Golden Russet, Jonathan, Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, Scarlet Pippin and Winesap.
• Good varieties for storage are the Arkansas Black, Albemarle or Newtown Pippin, Granny Smith, Acey Mac, Honeycrisp, Empire, Virginia Beauty, Winesap and York Imperial.
• Early apple varieties include the Pristine, Lodi, Jersey Mac, Earligold, Mollie's Delicious, Zestar, Red Melba, Red Astrachan (Red Lincoln, American Red) and Gala.
• Good varieties for espalier growing are the Gravenstein, Winesap, Northern Spy, McIntosh, Cortland and Yellow Delicious.
• Varieties for making cider include the Russet, Baldwin, Winseap and McIntosh.
• Good apples for baking and making applesauce and baked apples are the Cortland, Empire, Crispin (or Mutsu), Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Ida Red and Jonathan.

Pears, which can be used for fresh desserts, cooking or canning, are presumed to have originated in the Caucasus or Anatolia. Today, there are around 5,000 pear varieties worldwide. Here's a quick rundown of some of the more common heirloom pear varieties.

• Hardy, undemanding varieties include the Summercrisp, Bosc, Anjou, Bartlett, Early Golden Pear, Ure Pear and Tyson.
• Pears that store well include the Anjou, Packham, and Asian pears such as the Kikusui, Hosui and Chojuro.
• Good cooking varieties include the Anjou, Bosc and Concorde.

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