When people talk about reasons to buy local fruits and veggies, they often bring up flavor. A tomato from the grocery store doesn’t taste anything like a tomato fresh from the garden. But Francie Randolph of Sustainable Cape says there’s a big health difference, too.

For the past two weeks on the Local Food Report, I’ve been airing pieces from an interview I did this winter with apple expert John Bunker. The Maine gardeners I grew up with spoke of Bunker’s apple knowledge with awe and reverence, and when I finally met him, I understood why. Bunker—founder of the mail order nursery Fedco Trees—grows an estimated 450 varieties of apples on his farm outside Augusta, Maine. When I asked him if he had any favorites, he named two—and added in a little history. Here are Bunker’s favorites, in his own words.

To keep many of our keystone nut trees dominant on the landscape, we need to burn the woods periodically. The same prescribed or “cultural” fires that make our sandy pine and oak forests less likely to succumb to catastrophic burns also help species like oaks, hickories, and hazels thrive. These trees are “fire-adapted”: they share traits including thick bark, the ability to resprout vigorously from deep roots, resistance to rotting after fire scarring, and seeds that germinate well in fire-created seedbeds.