Apple Cemetary or Hidden Cider Mecca!?!

Younger fruit trees closer to the house

When we first arrived on the Homestead we were so psyched to be moving to an orchard!  We also thought that many of the apple trees were dying, or dead, rightly so because they hadn't been pruned in years and had been overgrown by Norway Maples.  Although we were thrilled to have them and had high hopes that we would be able to graft them onto new rootstocks before they past, we didn't give the actual standing trees a chance.  Boy were we wrong!

I mean, wouldn't you think that this tree's days are numbered?!

Among the many people that we have received so far on the Homestead, we were lucky to have the visit of Mr. John Bunker a few weeks ago. For those who have not yet heard the name, Mr Bunker is the leading pomologist for FEDCO and he is quite interested in Maine apple varieties, looking to find orchards that still have some of the old varieties that the settlers grew.

Mr. John Bunker with one of our supposed Russett apples, Alex's favorite

Since we have an orchard, and a really old one at that, we thought we should invite Mr. Bunker over and set out to identify our apples.  It turns out we have a hidden treasure!  So far we haven't identified many of the trees but we know that we have multiple different varieties, apples, crab apples, yellows, greens and reds, early ones and over wintering ones. Red Astrakhans, McIntoch, Snow, Russetts, Bell Flowers, Northern Spy and Cortlands are among the varieties that the previous owner remembers.  And Mr. Bunker said that our crab apples (of which we had no idea what we were going to do with) are the perfect kinds of apples for cider. hmmmmmmmmmm cider.

My very favorite, it doesn't look like much but it's delicious!... a yellow apple with red dots, still don't know what it is

Last November, I was very excited to figure out if any of the apple trees were going to fruit over the coming season.  This November, I am excited anew, to elucidate the mystery of the apple orchard and get ready for our first official holistic apple orchard crop... with high hopes once again, that we will be able to successfully use organic means to reduce worms and diseases.

Its pretty incredible to me that most of these trees are still alive and bearing fruit.  Now our job is to nurture them, back to full production.

Ok, a few of them are really gone...

an old apple surrounded by Norway Maples... for now :)

 

Yet another yellow with red dots

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Til next time, be well.