It was 1993 and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) horticulturist Phil Forsline was flying over the magnificent mountain ranges of south-eastern Kazakhstan in a helicopter. Forsline had not been to the huge Central Asian country before; with the recent fall of the Soviet Union, this was his first chance to visit its wild forests. It was here, scientists now believe, that the ancestors of the apples sold in supermarkets around the globe originally evolved. Forsline was on a quest to find out what was really out there, in those mountain gardens.

In 2013, over 80 million tonnes of apples were produced worldwide. Half of them came from China. In the United States alone, the wholesale value of the apple crop is worth nearly $4bn (£2.76bn). It’s obvious that people have their firm favourites from the many varieties. Consumers around the world select from crunchy, slightly sour Granny Smiths or go for a sweet and mushy Red Delicious.

But some believe that the forests of Kazakhstan still hold many genetic secrets that could help us create even better apples. Central Asia, indeed, was the cradle of a key species – Malus sieversii. And in those wild Kazakh forests today, M. sieversii still grows. The gardeners who look after these crops are a little out of the ordinary – bears who eat the fruit and scatter the seeds in their droppings.