Joanna Crosby

Joanna is an expert on the social and cultural history of apples and orchards in the U.K, with a focus on the nineteenth century. Within this, her areas of expertise include the practice of wassailing (blessing the trees), the presentation of the apple and the orchard in art and wider culture, and the relationship between representations of the apple and gender characteristics. She has also researched the horticultural history of the apple and how it was grown, setting the science of fruit growing into its cultural context.

Joanna is currently researching the history of apples in Japan; how and when the eating apple arrived, how it was received and how Japanese apple growers and consumers now relate to the fruit. She is heading to Japan in autumn 2024 for a research visit to orchards in the north.  She is also continuing to research the social and cultural importance of orchards, in particular considering the ways in which community orchards choose to present their activities, and how they are received.

Joanna was awarded her PhD in History from Essex University in 2021. Her first book was published in December 2023. Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century: Material Innovation and Cultural Tradition is part of the book series ‘Food in Modern History: Tradition and Innovation’, published by Bloomsbury Academic.

Joanna’s interest in apples began when she was a girl growing up among the orchards in Kent. When she moved to Cambridge she became one of the founding members of the Trumpington Community Orchard Project. As part of the development of the TCOP, she learned more about heritage varieties of apples, and the art and science of apple identification.

Joanna is a member of the East of England Apples and Orchards Project (EEAOP) working to identify, protect and restore heritage apple varieties.  She is developing the social media and website for the Orchards East Forum at UEA. She is the inventor of the on-line Pomological Personality Picker, a fun quiz that showcases the amazing varieties of apples that can be grown in gardens. Anyone can play at her website. https://applehistories.com/the-pomological-personality-picker/

1) The history of apples and orchards in Japan
Including the first evidence of European and American apple varieties arriving in Japan, and their reception. How Japanese culture has shaped consumer reception and expectations of apples. How Japanese apple farmers have adapted to suit climate and cultural challenges, and how they are involving the community and tourism to protect Japan’s unique apple heritage.
2) Community and heritage orchards
The history of the community orchard ‘movement’, what inspires groups to set them up, how they chose which apple varieties to grow and celebrate, and how the long history of the apple informs their choices and the orchard’s representations.
3) The life and work of Dr Robert Hogg
Dr Hogg was a nineteenth century ‘pomologist’, writer and botanist. At present there are only short biographies, although many of his works are available. I am looking to expand this into a biography that will set his work into context.