Gala apple began its march to global greatness fro
31 August 2018 - Media Release - Stuff
If James Hutton Kidd was alive today he might very well have the pip over the fortune he missed out on for creating one of the world's most popular apples.
The 20th Century Greytown horticulturalist came up with the Gala variety, which is about to take top spot in the United States, and is on track to become the world's favourite apple.
Back in the 1930s, Kidd blended varieties with quite different characteristics to create several winning combinations, including what was to become the mother of them all, the Gala.
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Gala apple variety creator James Hutton Kidd in his packing shed at Pinehaven Orchards in Greytown.
But it wasn't until the mid-1960s that another key figure in New Zealand's apple success story, Don McKenzie, named it and gave it a push.
Wairarapa historian and horticulture expert Gareth Winter said Kidd's genius came from a great sense of which varieties would work together.